The Proposal: Part III-2
by Blade of Justice
Summary: What do you get when you mix a Nepgear feeling like there's nowhere left she belongs, a Neptune holing herself up in Lastation, and a pair of Verts switching places with each other? Is it a little sister's devious plot, or... could it be? It is! Ready or not, Part 3 of The Proposal is here! [This Week's Episode: With the Vert away, the Vert will play.]
1. Chapter 1: Dear Nepgear

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 **WARNING: IF NO SAVE DATA FROM "THE PROPOSAL" IS PRESENT, IT IS RECOMMENDED FOR FIRST TIME PLAYERS TO CLOSE THE PROGRAM AND FIRST PLAY THROUGH "THE PROPOSAL" AS WELL CONSIDERING THE OPTIONAL "THE PROPOSAL: THE SPECIAL STAGES" DLC PACKAGE BEFORE BEGINNING THIS GAME.  
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 _The Proposal: Part III-2_

 _Chapter 64 / Chapter 1_

Fingers flew across keyboards, their speed rivaled by none. The trained digits of the elite team diligently tapped down on their desired targets, and with each perfect, precise touch they made, their next gift to the people of Gamindustri grew more and more. Their work was never finished, for one job's completion simply led them straight to the start of the next — but even so, these mighty few never gave up, never gave in, never faltered, never-

"Hey, Dengekiko, how do you spell 'magestic'? It's got a 'k' in it right at the end there, doesn't it?"

"How should _I_ know? These new computers have some special elite tools to help with spelling, don't they? Use them! I'm busy!"

"Elite" team indeed.

The blonde journalist known otherwise as Dengekiko waved her hand towards her red haired coworker, Famitsu, in an attempt to shoo her off — she, the far superior and much more skillful Dengekiko, was working on putting together the finishing touches to her newest assignment, given to her straight from The Boss, and she didn't have any time for distractions!

"Besides, shouldn't you be trying to get into Planeptune's Basilicom again instead of wasting time here? You'll get fired at this rate if you don't produce some results, you know..." Briefly, she stopped typing away at her article as the sparks of an idea began to take the form of a flame in her mind. "Hey, hey, Famitsu, if you get fired, can I interview you? I can, right? You'll let me? That might be a pretty good story. If you let me have dibs on the exclusive, I'll treat you to dinner later. I'm getting a bonus for this one, you know!"

The large-gloved journalist seemed to take the blonde's words into consideration, stopping her work to seriously contemplate the offer over whatever she had been working so hard on prior to Dengekiko's approach.

... which actually begged the question...

"Wait, what are you even working on to begin with?" Tilting her head, ponytail bobbing to the side along with her, Dengekiko finally stood up — her curiosity starting to get the better of her — to take a peek at Famitsu's screen. "I know you haven't been able to interview the CPU Candidate, no one has, so how do you have anything for your assignment? You're not making it up, are you?"

"Hmmmm... If you really want to know..." Eyes sparkling in a certain way, a way only a fellow journalist would be able to notice, Famitsu smiled up over her shoulder at Dengekiko. "I decided to do your assignment since I couldn't get in to talk to the CPU Candidate. If I can't do my job, it should be fine if I just do yours twice as well, right? Oh, and I'd like to have a steak for dinner, since you're offering."

One.

Two.

Dengekiko's slammed her hands onto the table so hard the keyboard jumped into the air in fear.

"BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSS!"

* * *

Another new day, another morning to start it all off — which meant that once more, it was time to risk a concussion or some other manner of injury caused by her clumsiness while she was hurriedly fumbling out of bed as fast as she could.

Nepgear was fairly certain that it couldn't be healthy to wake up every morning jumping, stumbling, falling out of bed in a desperate rush to reach for a calendar connected to the internet. But here she was for another morning, cursing her body's unwelcome weakness all the while, hurrying to the computer to check the time.

The first thing she did every morning was look at the calendar. After that, she checked the clock. After _that_ , she checked all of the clocks to make sure every single one was in order.

Nepgear hated that she couldn't trust the calendar at her bedside or the one clock on her bedroom wall, but she was smart enough to realize after just the first two days that anyone could just leave that calendar untouched if she were to fall into another long sleep. She couldn't trust it — she, much to her horror, had come to accept she wasn't sure if she could trust anyone fully right now.

Not until she was used to everything that had happened. Not until she had accepted it.

"Is that even going to be possible...?" she mused to herself wearily once she had confirmed that it was indeed the day after the day she had gone to bed, confirming that nothing abnormal had happened and she had slept like a normal person had. "How much more of this do I have to put up with?"

Leaning back in her chair, Nepgear held out a hand towards her ceiling. Her skin color didn't match the color she remembered it being — the tone, shape, feeling... She still wasn't quite used to her body yet. She couldn't even imagine what it was like for people who went through this for even longer than she had. It had only been a few... months, yes, it was months that she had been out...

Closing the fist that she had finally been able to accept as her own, the CPU Candidate sighed.

One day, she had fallen to sleep after a day of working hard for the sake of their ailing Planeptune. She had been working alongside her beloved older sister, all but hand in hand, and then... When she next opened her eyes...

Planeptune was ailing significantly less. Her older sister was hand in hand and so much more with someone else.

So little was the same as she remembered.

Her home, her room, her friends, her sister- Even her own _body_ wasn't the same as she remembered it being.

Biting her bottom lip, Nepgear shook her head. She didn't want to dwell too much on it — not that she had much to do _besides_ dwell these days, what with how everyone still sticking around her was insisting she just stay inside and rest and relax.

At least when she was stuck around all by herself like this, there was something she could do about it. Recalling the little "project" she had been working on the night before, Nepgear made her way over to her desk to turn on her computer.

"Hello, little one, how are you this morning?" the purple haired goddess quietly asked the little stuffed dogoo that she'd left to guard her computer while she rested. Yet another of the many presents she had found herself surrounded by in her room when she had returned to it after waking up. The clothes she was wearing, come to think of it, had come from them too — and they had fit perfectly!

Fighting a fuzzy feeling warmth that spread from her tummy to her toes, Nepgear shook her head in the hopes of rejecting her growing blush as her computer came to life, rising from sleep in the same place she had left it in the night before. Nepgear was reminded yet again why that was another subject that she told herself not to dwell on for to long — albeit for very different reasons than the first.

"Though I guess out of those two things, I'd rather get stuck on that one..."

Her computer ready for her to get back to business, Nepgear reached for her keyboard — but just as Nepgear opened up what she had been working on, there was a knock at her door. Before Nepgear could so much as say "Just a minute!" or go to open the door herself, it opened on its own.

For a moment, Nepgear felt her heart rising into her chest, her hopes along with it — and they promptly fell the moment her eyes locked with the person entering her room.

"Oh... It's Noire, huh..." Nepgear mumbled to herself, averting her gaze from the black haired goddess standing in her doorway.

Taking in the sight of the CPU Candidate before her, raising up from her desk to greet her, Noire placed a hand on her hip and gave the girl a once over.

She had to fight back the urge to smile. She still remembered the first day she had seen Nepgear when this whole mess had started. The change from then to now was simply staggering, and the girl still had quite a ways to go even then.

"You look good, Nepgear," she started off. But the look she got... wow, what an expression!... that was a look that told Noire that the topic of Nepgear's appearance was still going to be off limits for a little while longer, it seemed. "R-Really, you do! I'm not just saying that, you know, it's just..."

Sighing, Nepgear closed her eyes. With a shake of her head, she returned the attempt at a comforting look Noire was trying to give her with a sarcastic one and raised her hands in a dismissive shrug.

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, I _know_ , I wasn't awake to see it, but oh how I must have looked _so_..." Blinking a few times, Nepgear trailed off, quickly looking away from the other goddess — anywhere was fine. She had just been incredibly disrespectful just now, hadn't she? She could feel herself blushing furiously. And with good reason! How positively insolent of her! E-Even if this person was her sister-in-law now — what a thought! — she was still... "I-I, oh goodness, Noire, I'm sorry, I didn't-"

Much to Nepgear's surprise and relief, Noire held up a hand to hold her off, a knowing smile playing on her lips. If there was one thing Nepgear was a little thankful for, it was that if Neptune had _had_ to marry someone, it was someone she got along with... not that she particularly felt like getting along with any of this situation right now, but with time... maybe...?

Aaah, it was still too much to try to think about, she just couldn't imagine it!

"Don't tell Neptune, but I'm actually glad to see you getting like that. I'd be pretty mad too if I was cooped up without anything to do with myself. But chin up, okay? I'm sure that..." The goddess paused, noticing the visible reaction of Nepgear's when she brought up a certain something — or rather, a certain someone. "Nepgear... You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but has Neptune still not..."

Nepgear didn't hesitate to answer — and the quiet air of coldness in her voice, far more frank than her earlier tone, did not go unheard by Noire.

"No, she hasn't. She's too busy, isn't she? And..." Nepgear pursed her lips. She looked back towards her computer — to the letters she had been in the process of writing. Her gaze lingered on one for a moment, before she looked back at the waiting Noire. Could she bring this up to Noire? Was that okay? Noire of all people would be able to do something about this, wouldn't she? Opening her mouth, Nepgear prepared herself."And... And, well, um, Vert hasn't either."

Noire blinked.

"Eh? Vert?" Noire looked around the room. The once cozy, organized room of Nepgear had since become overrun by presents — clothes, games, toys, dolls, and more. Pointing to a pile of the stuff, Noire turned back to the Candidate. "Seriously? But didn't she send you all of this stuff? Why would she do that and not come say anything?"

If it were up to her, Nepgear just wanted to ask what this woman's wife was doing that was keeping her anywhere but with her own sister, but managed to hold that question back. Was she supposed to be used to it? Was that the idea? Just like old times, maybe?

"I have no idea." Nepgear answered curtly. It wasn't exactly a question she really wanted to know the answer to as much as it was one she would have liked to no longer have meaning. Thinking about it just hurt her self-confidence. "Oh, but Rom and Ram came by again yesterday... And Peashy's been coming by a lot with Plutia."

Nepgear couldn't help but smile a little at the thought. Being here alone or with Noire like this just... didn't sit right with her, but visits like those made her feel like nothing all that terrible had happened after all. At the very least, she felt like she really was welcome then, which was more than she could say about the minimal time she'd spent with her sister and Noire after everything had settled once she'd woken up.

She couldn't believe herself for thinking it, but it really was a shame she couldn't just become a CPU Candidate of Lowee for a little while — just to cool down, of course, just only for that reason. Maybe.

Sensing it might be a good time for her to make her exit as she watched Nepgear start to smile, Noire's hand reached forward a little — as if she wanted to touch Nepgear somewhere, like her shoulder or head — but quickly retracted back to her side. She may have been a dense, prideful girl about a lot of things, but she did at least understand enough to know she and Nepgear had a ways to go before they could have something akin to the friendly relationship they had had before everything had happened.

"Well... I'll be seeing you, okay?" Nodding at the Candidate — the girl she had come to start to consider her charge over the past few days — Noire made her way out of the girl's bedroom, but not before pausing to look back at her dutifully. "I-I don't know if Neptune will be back from Lastation for dinner, but Histoire and I will still be here if you feel up to joining us."

"Okay." Nepgear wasn't able to meet Noire's gaze even now, and she hated to face that part of herself. But still... She did feel like... She didn't just want to leave things at that. "Ah... Thank you, Noire."

With a simple nod of acknowledgement in response, perhaps fearing any more would push it too far, Noire raised a hand to signal her departure and headed off to do who knew what.

Just like that, Nepgear once again found herself alone.

Letting out a burst of pent up air she had been holding in for the entirety of her encounter with Noire, Nepgear looked back towards her computer now that Noire was gone. Whenever she had to talk to Noire now, she felt a weight drop into the pit of her stomach, and every time Noire left her, it vanished almost right away.

Would she ever get past this? If nothing else... She wanted- No, she wasn't sure if she wanted to, really, but she was fairly sure she did _have_ to.

"One day..." Nepgear murmured.

Setting thoughts of her sister's wife aside (how much time were _they_ spending together? she wondered darkly to herself), Nepgear made her way to her door to close it once again. Privacy once more hers, the Candidate returned to her computer.

It was true that she had started a letter the night prior to Vert with the intention of checking in and not-so-subtly asking if and when she would finally visit, yes, but...

The CPU Candidate bit her lip as she settled on looking at the other e-mail she had been drafting before she had gone to bed.

Vert wasn't the only person from outside of Planeptune that she had been longing to see who hadn't visited or otherwise been in contact.

Unlike with Vert, whom she had simply assumed would come eventually seeing as she had already sent her all of these gifts, and was simply busy with her duties as a goddess (... or maybe being the late night gamer that she was...), this person had given Nepgear no sign of contact since she had woken up — and this letter would be the third of its kind that Nepgear would have sent to them once she finished it. The first two had still not gotten responses.

Recalling that unfortunate fact, she hesitated. Would this third letter once again go without a response back? Would her letter to Vert go without any response as well?

When she finished them... then what? Was she just wasting more of her time with this?

"Well... _If_ I finish them," the Candidate finally added to herself. Looking from one of her open drafts to the next, contemplating which she wanted to start on again first, Nepgear finally let out a sigh. "I... don't think I feel like writing these anymore... I'll just save them as drafts and come back to this later."

Shaking her head, Nepgear began typing away, now in a hurry to be done with what now felt like it was just an exercise in futility.

"I'll just give them some easy names so I can find them quickly if I decide to get back to them." She assured herself, nodding for good measure. She wondered if anyone would believe her if they could see the little show she was putting on for herself — did it mean she didn't if she was thinking that way? "Well, goodness, it's just that... That way... It's not like I'm not trying anymore. I'm just taking a break from this for now to do something else."

It didn't matter now, she supposed. She'd decided on this course of action, so she owed it to her resolve — meager as this scenario was in the scheme of things — to see it through.

"Dear... Vert... dot... tee ex tee... There we go."

Well, that wasn't so hard, was it, Nepgear? She should get herself some breakfast, oh, and maybe even some yummypudding after this — just after she closed out of the other letter and put it out of her mind for a while. One down, one to go, and then it was off to get some pudding.

"And then... Dear... Uni... Part... Three... There."

Her letters saved, Nepgear closed out of her work and set off for the kitchen.

If she could say anything about her situation, at least she had become able to go back down that hallway without having to fear she would walk in on something that would ruin her for marriage.

"... But is that because I've gotten over it, or because I was so sullied the first time there was no going back for me..."

Oh well. That was just one more thing she'd have to remember not to think too hard about.


	2. Chapter 2: Respect the Drawers!

"Hidey howdy hodey ho, Nepgear! It's your new sister-in-law, Uni! Sorry for not calling you back about your e-mails sooner, I wasn't sure if you'd adjusted to your whole world being turned upside down yet, and to tell you the truth, I've been too scared to know where I stand with you after hearing how badly you're taking things to work up the courage to call you! Gooooolly, was the pressure on knowing that you want to see me! Let me know how you're doing, and maybe we can grab a bite! Hope you're excited as I am to get to work on that baby console of ours once you're all better! Kisses! ... Desu!"

Uni stared at herself in the mirror. A picture perfect fake smile was on her face. Sparkles were floating around her in the air in such numbers that they had to have been artificially placed there.

She took a good, long look at herself like this for a few minutes. Every so often, she added in a wink, which seemed to generate more and more of the sparkles. Each new batch appeared faker than the last.

Then, suddenly and all at once, the image completely shattered.

Wailing, Uni covered her face with her hands. She was filled with so much despair that she couldn't even manage as much as a little blush at how humiliating what she had just said to herself in the mirror had been.

"As if I could ever actually say that to someone...! How do idols do it?!"

Running her hand through her hair in frustration, the CPU Candidate stomped out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She felt horrible for what she had done, for what she was continuing to do, and in feeling horrible, she felt horrible _for_ feeling horrible, knowing surely Nepgear was much worse off, but...

"What am I supposed to do? I didn't... How was I supposed to think she'd take it all like this...?"

She had no idea what to do. Here she had been thinking to herself about how they would make a baby (console) together once Nepgear woke up, but the idea that Nepgear might not want to — that Nepgear might not want anything to do with any of this- No, that wasn't it. The idea that Nepgear might not even be able to process all of this to the point where she was ready to even start deciding whether or not she wanted to... that hadn't even crossed Uni's mind.

Now, ever since Nepgear had woken up... She'd just been feeling more and more frustrated.

"Why did I think she'd be ready to join in and be all caught up with us as soon as she woke up?" the Candidate asked herself miserably. "It's not like she had a TV playing in her head while she was asleep...! What am I supposed to do?"

As if someone up there had heard her cry, her bedroom door slammed open, and in rushed-

Someone who most definitely did not look like they had the answer Uni was looking for. Or any answer or probably anything else that might help her in any way, for that matter.

"Hey, hey, Uni, you in here- Oh, good! Do you know where does Noire keep that big book of businessy people she's always bragging about? Somebody's gotta make this call about some Nepstation stuff and since Kei's not here and it's gotta get done before..." Neptune looked around the room helplessly, smiling for the first time since her rushed arrival when her eyes landed on the clock on the wall. "... weeeell it's a good thing I'm cute... Anyway, I don't know their number, so..."

"Hold on, hold on a minute... Okay, I know which book you mean. You really want that?" Uni tilted her head, trying to recall where her sister actually kept the book in question — she chose to ignore the fact that it sounded like Neptune was late for whenever the appointed time for this supposed call had been. "Just a minute, let me think..."

Somehow or another, Uni had finally managed to get used to Neptune's presence in their Basilicom, more or less, and dare she say, maybe she was even starting to... kind of... _perhaps_ think of their relationship as more than _just_ Candidate and CPU from different nations... but when it came Neptune _working_ in their Basilicom — Neptune working period was still something, after all! — but this, and when her sister wasn't even there on top of that? That was an entirely different matter!

It was becoming apparent with each passing day, however, that this was something Uni was going to have to get used to eventually — at least Nepgear had years of Noire and the others messing around in Planeptune to have hopefully built up some kind of preparedness for Uni's sister's presence over on her side. Uni liked to hope that that was how things were going over there...

She had a feeling — just a feeling, a feeling that might just have happened to have had some backing to it thanks to some e-mails she _juuuuust_ might have been ignoring — that that might not be the case, though.

"Oh, I remember where she keeps it now! I'm pretty sure she keeps it in the office safe, since she's got them all memorized she doesn't usually need it except to put new ones in after all." Uni offered her answer to Neptune with more than a little pride directed towards her sister. "And the spare key for it is-"

"- in the drawer with the extra hair pins, right?" Neptune quickly interrupted, her eyes already darting from Uni to the clock. Did she look pleased, or was she already thinking about the call she was about to make?

"W-Well... That's actually the stationary drawer, but... You're not wrong..." Uni grumbled, sighing at Neptune's simultaneous display of both her newly gained diligence and her everlasting absurdity. Honestly, why did the hair pins stand out more to her in such an important drawer?

No matter. Since Neptune was here, this was a good chance!

Go, Uni, go!

"Could I ask you something, Neptune? That is... Um... Listen, I want you to tell me, how is Nepge- Eh?"

Uni had taken too long to work up the nerve to ask her question. Neptune was already dashing down the hall, in all likelihood having completely missed the moment the girl had asked it. The only proof she had even been there to begin with was a "Thanks, Uni!" she called out after she had already left Uni's room.

The CPU Candidate sighed, her shoulders slumping. She might have considered chasing after Neptune anyway, either to yell at her for disrespecting her sister's drawers or to get her answer anyway, but she just felt too lousy to do it. Had overdone it the day before and tired herself out trying to distract herself from all of this...?

She looked forlornly towards a pillow. For a moment, she wanted to just... grab it and scream as loud as she could into it, but all of this thinking was making her too tired to do any of that. She was pooped, and she still hadn't seen Nepgear!

Had it really come down to this? Her backup plan's backup plan's backup plan?

She supposed... If it came down to it... Which it seemed like it had...

The CPU Candidate glanced towards the direction Neptune had gone. No sign of her.

"It wouldn't be stalking if I do it out of concern, right?"

She was truly (unknowingly) the apple of her sister's eye.

* * *

It was always nice to take a moment to break away from the usual and sit down with a guest. This afternoon, Leanbox's goddess happened to be partaking in this much needed delight.

Pleased to see her visitor, Vert sipped her tea and smiled, eager to dive right into whatever this distraction from her recent concerns would bring her.

Nervous about what this discussion with her host was to entail, Vert kept her voice especially low, dodging any question that would lead to having to discuss her reasons for visiting for as long as she possibly could.

Today, Vert had come to visit Vert — that is to say that the Vert of the dimension host to the likes of Plutia and Peashy had, out of the blue, appeared on the other Vert's balcony, the balcony known best for lilies and loving, looking like she'd seen a ghost. Or perhaps like she was considering becoming one herself.

"So, what brings you here today?"

Unfortunately for the visiting Vert, the Vert of this dimension happened to want a distraction _very_ much, and she wasn't going to be able to avoid her reason for coming round for any longer than she already had.

"Well, you see... It's a rather long story... There was even going to be a whole spinoff about the two of us at one time, you know. Unfortunately, it ended up being canceled along with all the other side projects that got shelved, and, well..." Shaking her away her doubts and all of these unnecessary meta-topics, Vert raised her head to look at this world's version of her in the eye. "Oh, that all doesn't matter right now...! We'll work the important bits in through flashbacks later on, I'm sure! What matters is this: Vert, I need to switch places with you for a little while. Tomorrow, to be specific."

"You need to... No, you need _me_ to..." Vert brought a hand to her mouth in surprise. Needless to say, she hadn't expected this. At the same time... If she were to be honest about the matter, she had often wondered why this type of subplot had never happened before. It was such a delightful cliche after all! Was it because, for some strange and mysterious reason, the two groups of Noires, Verts, and Blancs were just never around for some mysterious reason? Regardless... now that it had actually arrived, she wasn't quite sure what she should make of it. Perhaps she had simply always envisioned Noire being the one? "I'm sorry, can you explain this to me?"

Was something going on in the other dimension that required her interference? Was there some sort of threat? If that was the case, it seemed hardly right for only her to be involved — but if that was the case, would switching really help anything? Did her counterpart simply want a day off to enjoy things over here? Rather ironic, considering Vert would have liked the same.

If that was what was happening here, perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, but somehow she doubted it.

"You see, my situation is quite dire." The Ultradimension's Vert was looking so serious. Oh dear, the other Vert thought to herself with a wry smile, this Vert had no idea. Little did Vert know... Now why was her mirror image looking timid all of a sudden? "I... Well, that is... You mustn't... You won't judge me, will you? No, what am I saying, you're me... I mean... You aren't _me_ , but..."

Vert frowned as she watched her counterpart try to collect herself. Perhaps this was more serious than she had first anticipated.

"Are you alright? You look like you're coming down with a fever... Shall I get you something for it?" she offered the Vert of the Ultradimension, but Vert simply earned a shaking head in response.

"No no, it's not that... You see, I, well I..." Taking a deep breath, the Vert across the table placed a hand to her chest, her cheeks stained with such a fire that Vert was about to get something from the kitchen to help her for it. At least, right until she said- "I believe that I'm developing feelings for Blanc — the one over on our side, that is — and I can't have her finding out. I... I may even be falling in love with her, so...!"

A look of determination shining in her eyes, Vert reached over to take one of Vert's hands in her own. She was clearly drifting into her own little world now.

"That's why I need you to take my place on our- Well, it's not, but it might as well be one- We going on a 'date' tomorrow. She must still think I can't stand being near her by the time it's done, and as I am now, I just..."

The goddess' mirror image smiled softly at Vert.

"I truly don't think I can do it.."

The sheer sincerity of this blonde goddess stunned her.

Could it be that Vert had forgotten what that was like? It had been... Yes, it must have been quite a while since she'd last been able to express herself like that in the same way, now that she thought of it. Between hiding away her budding feelings for Nepgear and pushing forward with this Blanc business and trying to deal with Chika without giving her any false hope, and then-

Wait wait wait wait.

Waaaaait wait wait wait wait _wait wait wait wait wait._

 _Just a moment._

 _Excuse her, she needed to back up a moment, and she was quite sorry here for anyone oh so interested in what she had just been thinking, and this subplot was probably very very interesting, Vert was sure, but **who** did this fat, ugly, hideous looking impostor that looking nothing like her in a million years sitting across the table just say she was falling in love with? _

"... Vert?" The impostor, the wolf in Vert's clothing, the scoundrel of scoundrels, in question blinked. "Is something the matter?"

"That- That is _not_ an explanation! S-Start over, please, right now, this moment, right this instant! From- From the _beginning_! Our readers- No, I'm afraid I can't be concerned with them right now, because you see, _I_ was not mentally prepared to ever heard the words 'I may even be falling in love with her!' in regards to _that_ goddess coming out of _my_ mouth for as long as I live, and until I hear an explanation, I... I don't think I'll be able to..." She couldn't — she just _couldn't_ wrap her head around this. Why... Vert felt faint. She had to pull out her ace in the hole. No, her _aces_ in the hole! "What about Nepgear? O-Or- Or P-P-P... _Peashy_?!"

She had practically been squeaking by the time she had gotten to Peashy's name. Was she pale or red? How long had it been since she'd gotten this flustered about something? Rather, had she _ever_ been this taken off guard before? Certainly not in recent memory.

No, she supposed this was quite the event — only you can really do this to yourself, after all.

Was this how she had made Blanc feel when she had made her "proposal" to her?

She could practically hear the other goddess whispering "Karma's a bitch, huh?" into her ear now.

Vert finally understood... No wonder Noire avoided these kinds of interactions... She hadn't been giving her nearly enough credit at all, had she?

The other Vert blinked. Her counterpart's desperation here... didn't seem to be the same kind of desperation she was used to seeing from the likes of Noire — that is to say the likes of a tsundere. So this her was genuinely bothered by this development? Did that mean she couldn't see the appeal of Blanc? Or was she just jealous...? Well, she supposed it wasn't her business. She was probably the same way not too long ago anyway.

Still, there was one thing she had to address here.

"My, Vert, I don't think I would survive trying to court sweet little Peashy even if I wanted to. Short of Iffy or Compa, since they were childhood friends and raised together, I don't believe _anyone_ could get away with it..." Since there was another person to consider, Vert had to stop to consider it. It wasn't that she hadn't ever thought about it, but... "Yes, I do love them, but... This is different. I wish it wasn't so, but I'm afraid I'm serious."

Seeing Vert's resolve clear as day, something she realized she herself had been lacking lately, particularly when it came to affairs involving the Blanc on this side of things, Vert took in a deep breath. She was acting just shameful right now. It was a good thing Chika was out right now, or- Well, come to think of it, it was a good thing Chika was out for a lot more reasons than the one she had just been about to think about. Four of them at the absolute minimum, to be exact.

The goddess sighed. How childish of her...

"I... I believe... Yes, goodness, I believe I owe you an apology for reacting like that." Straightening her back, Vert reached for her tea — and set aside any pretense of politeness by downing the rest of her cup straightaway. "Could you please explain how this came about? It must be quite the story if it had almost been a story all its own. Would you tell me the details?"

"Well, if you insist... Oh, if only Blanc hadn't overheard Noire's confession! Ah, forgive me, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Believe it or not, it actually started when we came over here for Neptune's wedding..."


	3. Chapter 3: The Plan I

Neptune had gotten married.

Blanc wasn't particularly bothered by it. Nah, not a bit — probably one of the least bothered of their crew over in the Ultradimension, as a matter of fact.

If she was anything... She was actually, believe it or not, pretty damn glad to hear it.

Oh, yeah, she'd been pissed as all else when she'd heard what had happened to that moron. She had half a mind to go right over there and give that purple haired nincompoop a piece of her mind, give her what for, all of that good stuff. Blanc didn't know how the other CPUs had taken it, she'd been alone when the message had come, but it had taken Copy releasing his newly installed limiters to hold her down and stop her from going over to the other dimension to yell and scream at the other CPU for what she had done before she'd finally cooled off.

There was a very good reason she had been so upset, though... Just not one the other CPUs might expect from a hardheaded lass like Blanc.

It was just... More than anything...Even more than how pissed off and disappointed and frustrated and even guilty she felt...?

She realized she had felt a surprising amount of empathy towards Neptune.

She had been there, after all.

Even though their worlds worked differently, and even though Blanc hadn't faced what Neptune had for nearly as long, to nearly the same extent, she still knew what it was like. For the people who believed in you to leave you... For your spirit to get sucked away all because of some lousy mistakes and tremendous screw ups... Blanc knew too well, or maybe only well enough, how Neptune was probably feeling. She was more aware of it than she was comfortable with.

She wondered just how much any of the other CPUs really understood. She wondered, more than anything, if that twintailed bimbo Neptune was hitching herself to would really be able to get it. This _was_ a Noire they were talking about here... Well, she wouldn't think like that about it. If Neptune was happy, she'd leave it at that.

She wasn't going to say anything about her feelings to Neptune. Shit, she could just imagine what a downer that would be — and on the moron's wedding day no less? No, things were looking up for her.

The best course of action was to keep her mouth shut, enjoy the party, be glad Neptune wasn't dead, and go on home after playing around with her other self's sisters for a while and maybe even screwing around with the people from Neptune's dimension a little bit. It should have been fun, all in all.

So when the time came for her to actually go to the wedding, she hadn't imagined that there would be any issues popping up for her. It wasn't like there were any problems in her dimension. She met up with the other goddesses at the portal, all of them dressed up to varying degrees, and they were off.

No... She hadn't expected to feel much of anything at the wedding. She just wasn't the "I'm so moved!" type, after all. Maybe she'd argue with Noire, maybe she'd see if Plutia's head would roll onto _her_ shoulder rather than Noire's when Plutia inevitably fell asleep, maybe she'd even get lucky and _Plutia_ would be the "I'm so moved!" type and start crying into her chest or something...!

But all in all, that would pretty much be it.

She felt happy that Neptune had gotten out of the hole she had found herself in.

As it turned out, it hadn't quite worked out the way she'd figured it would.

Yes, the things she had expected had come to pass more or less as she had expected them to, but there had been a little more to the event than just that. At the wedding, Blanc had seen her other self, that counterpart that existed in the other dimension — Neptune's dimension. She saw the conflicting feelings, the confusion, the regret she clearly didn't quite understand yet that flitted across her face as she watched the newlyweds fly away.

Blanc had known that they weren't exactly the same. In many ways they were alike, but they didn't completely match up — and she was very thankful for that. Still... She hadn't expected this. It looked like they were different — yet similar all at the same time — in just one more area, Blanc realized. It wasn't just temples and snow or robots and sisters. There was another important difference between them, it seemed...

Her counterpart didn't know how she felt yet, did she? At best, if Blanc were to guess, she was probably just figuring it out now — now that it was too late for her to do a damn thing about any of it all. This was all new to her, wasn't it? _That_ Blanc... She had missed her chance.

Well, the same wasn't true for _this_ Blanc.

She had had years to sort out how she felt. She knew what she wanted, and she was going for it.

No black haired skank was going to be getting in _her_ way.

... Right?

* * *

Vert had been humming to herself as she went about her room, all in preparation for what was going to most certainly be a riveting day of games and anime. She'd gotten all the new releases lined up and ready, and she even had a few imported titles from the other dimension just in case she had some time left over before...

... well, she didn't really have anything else planned, but she supposed she would need to eat or sleep _eventually_...

Sadly, Vert's day of boys love and frolicking little sisters was not to be. Before Vert could begin, the intercom on her desk sounded, its deafening **BEEP** silencing any hope she had of enjoying her personal day. This was what she got for being the only goddess that worked all by her beautiful self, she supposed. Oh well... That was just the price she had to pay for greatness, wasn't it?

With one grand gesture, well practiced after many years of necessity, Vert had everything off and organized, just in case whoever was visiting was here for business and should need to come up to her room. With a second, equally grand gesture, Vert tapped the button on her intercom, declared "I'll be down in a moment!" and was on her way before her hair could even settle from all the spinning around her room she was doing.

A whole lot of effort to go through considering when she saw just who was waiting for her at her front door, Vert found herself seriously considered closing it in their face and pretending she hadn't seen a thing.

"I need your help." Head lowered — in shame? oh, Vert rather hoped it was in shame — there, standing there like she never had before, was Blanc.

She almost _did_ close the door right in the older goddess' face, right up until Blanc raised her head to face Vert, allowing her the chance to look Blanc in the eye. Once she did that, Vert did the complete opposite instead.

"My goodness, Blanc, you look like you were just robbed. Is that what happened? Well, you can tell me about it all in a little bit." Vert smiled, just a little cattily, at the smaller goddess. "Would you care to come inside and have some tea?"

Vert couldn't believe what luck she had. To think, Blanc had come to her in need of something, and she looked like that over it? Whatever it was, it just _had_ to be succulent. She could not wait to hear _all_ about it from her. Once she was satisfied, but only then, Vert would... consider helping her, certainly — just seeing Blanc so helpless like this was quite the reward already, you know. But depending on what Blanc wanted from her, maybe she could use it to get the upper hand over her, mmm?

"I'm not in the mood for screwing around today. Don't take this the wrong way, since I know I'm the one asking for something here, but I don't think I have a lot of time. Not as much as I'd like, anyway, so..." Blanc closed her eyes. She seemed to be gathering her thoughts, preparing herself to explain what it was she wanted from Vert then and there.

For what it was worth, despite her earlier thoughts and plots, after seeing Blanc like that, the blonde felt as though she had had a change of heart. Why, Vert was just about to tell her if it was that serious, she would be happy to help no matter what it was. It wasn't like she disliked Blanc _that_ much, and besides-

"I need you to help me break up Plutia and Noire. I want us to completely ruin any hope of a relationship they'll ever have."

Vert froze in place. The smirk that had been coming and going from the moment Blanc had arrived had shattered like a piece of glass, but frozen as she was, it was still on her lips — not yet fallen to the ground.

It was truly a miracle Blanc had spoken before Vert had opened her big mouth and agreed to this before she had heard the details.

Surely she had heard Blanc wrong. There was no way in the entirety of Gamindustri Blanc had just waltzed up onto her doorstep and said what Vert thought she had just said. There were so many things wrong with what Blanc had just said to her, after all, that there was just _no_ _way_ that those words could have possibly left her lips! It was unthinkable!

Oh, Vert wished she was the vulgar type. She was fairly certain this would have been the perfect opportunity for her to let some kind of expletive accidentally escape, unknowingly boosting her popularity even further, and- No no no, this was not the time for that, was it?

"Blanc... You aren't serious right now... Are you...?" Slowly, perhaps so slowly her emotions were laid far more bare than she would have ever liked, Vert managed to respond to Blanc's request. It wasn't as though Vert wasn't unaware of Blanc's interest in Planeptune's goddess, but this was rather extreme, wasn't it? "What exactly brought this on? Y-Yes, that's an idea! Why don't we start with that, hmm?"

Turning to lead Blanc inside, as if they were now about to settle down for tea, Vert was acting for the world like that bomb hadn't been dropped on her.

Having other things in mind, Blanc slammed her hand on the wall to catch Vert's attention ("Eeeek!" the goddess cried, jumping a good foot in the air at the surprise move of Blanc's.) before reaching for the taller goddess' arm to turn her around and face her.

"Cut the crap, Vert." Looking up at Vert the way she was, Blanc's expression made Vert feel like she was the one looking up at someone rather than the other way around. "Noire did it today. She just- She walked right up to Plutia in broad daylight, then ran off!" She shook her head, the hostility almost palpable. But just who was it really directed towards? "I don't know what Plutia said, I don't know if _she_ even knows what Plutia said, with how fast she hightailed it out of there, but I can't... Dammit, Vert, I can't let them get too far into this if I still have time to do something about it and move in there myself. If that makes me the bitchiest one of us all, well, I'll take my punish-"

The more she listened, the more it became apparent to Vert that Blanc simply wasn't thinking this through.

Really, what was she saying here? She sounded like a regular villain from a romantic comedy... well, that or a protagonist, Vert supposed. They were interchangable half the time.

Still, didn't Blanc realize there were other ways? Not to mention, if what she was saying was all she knew about it, then there was some very important information missing here.

"Before I say anything more, I'm going to insist you not say 'I'll take my punishment' as though your biggest motivation for all of this isn't _specifically_ getting personal punishments on a nightly basis, because you just look like a hypocrite when you talk like that." Oh, yes, Vert was enjoying the horrified, humiliated, embarrassed, and oh so affronted look Blanc was giving her in response to that remark. Her smirk faltering just a little, she continued, proceeding to breach a more serious topic next. "Now Blanc, listen to me, it sounds like you don't even know if Plutia accepted Noire's confession. If you try to break up something that might not even exist, you could just be-"

"Look, just shut up! I'm begging you over here, dammit! What more do you want from me?!" Whether or not Plutia had accepted seemed irrelevant to Blanc as she screamed at Vert, quieting down the blonde in an instant. It seemed that to Blanc, so long as the idea was in Plutia's head, that she had already lost.

It was rather sad.

With her fists clenched at her sides and eyes clenched shut like that, the brunette really was the picture of _desperate_ , Vert realized. For a brief moment, taking in the sight of Blanc looking like this, looking at _her_ like this, she felt a powerful surge of sistership with Plutia — a jolt, even.

"Just..." Vert trailed off, her voice cracking as she tried to gather her thoughts. The feeling faded as quickly as it came. Truth be told, she wasn't sure how to approach this situation.

Part of Vert found that, even now, she _really_ still wanted to gloat a little. Blanc losing was something she didn't get to see often, if ever. It was just... How in the world could she do it when Blanc had come to her for help? When Blanc was throwing her pride away in order to do it? It would _completely_ spoil any sense of pleasure she could have gotten out of it!

And quite frankly, considering the situation, she doubted even Iris Heart would enjoy being in the position she was in now... Well, she supposed Iris Heart might enjoy going after the "Plutia" in that situation for getting her "Blanc" upset like this, but considering Iris Heart was... Oh, now Vert was just confusing herself!

"Do you realize you might have the both of them out for blood if this goes poorly?" Vert spoke more seriously now, her voice somewhat detached. What Blanc was suggesting, did she realize just what it could instigate if it backfired? Things were peaceful between their nations, but there was no reason they _had_ to be- What if Blanc just-

Vert never was able to be sure what she had been about to think to herself. Blanc cut her off with a blade so sharp, she was certain not even Iris Heart would have been able to stand before it.

"Vert... Please...! Please, goddamnit! I'll do anything, give you whatever you want...! Just help me out here!"

The older goddess placed her hands on the ground in front of her and then knelt down, her forehead soon following suit as it was pressed square between her hands on the ground as well. It was a strange and oh so foreign sight, needless to say. Vert had never expected to see such a thing from any of the other CPUs, and to see it from _Blanc_ of all people...

She really was that desperate.

After taking another moment to consider, the blonde CPU sighed. It went against her better judgement, but... No, she couldn't just leave her there, could she?

"Fine... My, but get off the ground first, would you? You're ruining it." Blanc's head shot up, her expression one of alarm. Good. Vert offered a small smirk. "That's right. When you do that in front of me, and you _will_ be kneeling just like that someday, I assure you, it's going to be because I bested you at something in every way imaginable and you've been forced to surrender yourself in every way imaginable to me... Yes, it's going to be like that, Blanc."

Vert hesitated. She realized she couldn't quite look at Blanc like this — it just didn't feel right.

"Not over something like this," she added quietly.

Her smirk having all but faded completely, Vert was thankfully able to regain her composure and then some and turn back as Blanc rolled her eyes and moved to get herself up.

"It's not as though I hate you or anything, you know. So long as you make it clear how I got involved should this backfire..." Vert averted her eyes, before hesitantly reaching for the brunette's shoulder as she raised herself off the ground. "Then I'll accept seeing you this desperate as whatever payment you think you owe me. From this moment forward, while I may say otherwise if it ever comes up, you will not bring up this matter again, else I will leave you high and dry without another word. Does that sound reasonable?"

Blanc couldn't believe her ears.

Was this for real? Was Vert seriously willing to do this for her? With her? And for essentially, no, absolutely nothing in return?

"Wait... You're really just telling me that if you want something later, you can ask for it, aren't you?" Blanc frowned. She wasn't in any position to take issue with it, but she didn't want to put Vert in a position where she'd be able to-

"I won't be doing anything as unscrupulous as using that to blackmail you down the road, if that's what you're worrying about." Shaking her head when it became clear by the embarrassed look on Blanc's face that that had been _exactly_ where her mind had been going, Vert gently pet the other goddess on her fluffy hat. "I have no intention of doing anything about it, I just want to leave the option open in case. I'm much more concerned with you deciding you're in my debt. Think of this as... charity work, yes, we'll call it that."

"Charity work... Well... Whatever floats your boat." Blanc shrugged, raising her arm to knock Vert's hand away from her head. She wasn't about to argue too much about anything here with Vert actually, much to her surprise, being so agreeable to her. All things considered, she had been about to leave. "You can't back out on this, you know. Even if Plutia and Noire never find out or hold it against you, if you-"

Vert rolled her eyes.

"Blanc, I'm sorry, but you're far too old to be giving me lines like that. Please let those who are age appropriate say them, if you would?"

"Wha... Why I..." Hands clenched at her sides, face burning a brilliant shade of scarlet, Blanc looked as though she was about to forget this entire arrangement and introduce Vert to her hammer. "Who the hell are you calling old?!"

"Oh, no one. Just the little girl who's _at least_ old enough to be my mother."

 _"I'm gonna kill you!"_

The two of them already knew that Blanc wasn't going to be doing a thing to her. Not as long as Vert was willing to be so compliant.

And so Vert just smiled and smiled _and smiled_.

This might actually turn out to be a lot of fun.


	4. Chapter 4: Complexed Sisters

"Of course, we didn't find out until much later that Noire actually _hadn't_ confessed to Plutia when Blanc saw them together outside Planeptune's Basilicom... but that's become something of a moot point now, obviously."

Setting her teacup down, Vert crossed her arms and looked her dimensionally displaced counterpart over. The other goddess had just finished telling her story — or rather, Vert supposed this was just how her story had started — and truth be told, it was quite a bit to process. It was even more to take in if Vert was going to go through with her counterpart's request.

"I see. And ever since Blanc approached you, you've been helping her try to stop them from becoming a real couple...?" Vert held her chin, losing herself in thought. So were Plutia and Noire _not_ together over there, then, or was there more to this than she was being told? Than perhaps even the Vert across the table knew? "You're even continuing to help her now?"

"That's right." The Ultradimension's Vert responded quietly. A distant look came over her as she nodded — what was it she was remembering? What strange adventures had she and the other Blanc gone on that had gotten them to this point? Gotten _Vert_ to this point?

If nothing else, it seemed like she and Blanc had been rather busy then, hadn't they?

"And... During this time, you..." Come on then, Vert. Just ask it. It wasn't that scary, was it? It wasn't like it was _her_ they were talking about. This person, this goddess sitting across from her, she was a completely different person they were discussing who had nothing to do with her. And so was the object of her affections. Oh, there, she did it mentally. That wasn't so hard, was it? "You developed feelings for her while you two were doing... well... whatever it was you two were doing?"

The other Vert looked down at the table, focusing intently on the teacup she had left untouched for the past hour or so.

"Yes... That's right."

Rather than the expected response of a blush and the goddess bursting into how wonderful the target of her affections was, she just seemed rather somber about the whole thing — not that Vert blamed her for it. She could appreciate having unrequited feelings — it wasn't so long ago that she had told herself to renounce any traces of that certain crush of hers in order to focus on the more pressing matters Leanbox was facing, and as hard as it had been, she had been doing an excellent job staying focused if she did say so herse...

... No, now just a moment, this wasn't about her, hadn't she just told herself that?

In any case, now Vert was starting to see much more clearly just what her counterpart's problem was.

Once she had accepted the idea of her doppelganger having feelings for the other world's Blanc — which was a real feat if she did say so herself, thank you very much — she just didn't understand what the problem of them going out on a date together could possibly be.

But if the date wasn't even a real date, and the Blanc in question was only going through with it in some misguided attempt to make someone she _did_ have a romantic interest in hers, unknowingly stringing along someone who was interested in her in the process... well, goodness, no wonder this Vert wanted a way out.

With the exception of the feelings for Blanc part of the equation, Vert couldn't help but sympathize with her counterpart's situation.

And, although it seemed like it was exactly the opposite of what the Vert across from her wanted, Vert just couldn't help but want to meddle and give the other goddess a helping hand... even if that meant playing around a little with Blanc — _a_ Blanc, anyway.

"Of course I'll help you — however I can." Vert smiled, taking the other Vert's hands in her own. Somehow, she didn't feel like her smile quite matched the one she saw looking back at her. "... but first, I suppose I I had better tell you about what's been happening over here in Leanbox, as I suspect you're only up to date on Planeptune and Lastation's affairs, yes?"

The other Vert looked surprised by the idea. No matter. Vert wasn't going to fill her in on all the details — just the ones she needed to know to take care of things in her stead for a day, that was all. She didn't want to be played herself while she was off playing, so to speak.

"You see, you may find yourself wanting a different Vert when you hear about some of the things I've been up to over _here_. As it just so happens, this all got started when I noticed some changes that had been taking place after Neptune and Noire's wedding as well..."

* * *

It hadn't been that strange for Neptune and Noire to sleep in different beds during that first month they had been married. At least half of the time, this had been more because of the fact that they had been unable to return to the same nation than for any other reason — they weren't even sleeping in the same building, so of course it was impossible to sleep in the same bed together!

Back then, they hadn't really had a choice when it had happened that way. So much was happening, so much was changing, if it had turned out that they couldn't make it back to where the other was before it was time to sleep, that was just a result of their efforts — proof that they weren't goofing off.

Well... There was that, yes, that and that teensy tiny detail that they hadn't gotten as close as they had — as they were now — yet.

A lot had changed since then.

Spinning around in Neptune's favorite "serious bidniss" chair, Noire sighed. How had it ended up that she, the original goddess of _Lastation_ , was working here in _Planeptune_ , only flying over back to her nation when needed and back when she wasn't, while _Neptune_ was spending so much time in _Lastation_?

Almost a week ago, Neptune had been telling her all kinds of things about their future. How this Nepstation idea of hers was going to change everything — for their nations, for Nepgear, and for the two of them especially. Noire had believed it, and she was fairly certain Neptune had too. And almost a week ago... Just before that, the two of them had made love for the first time.

At another time, and hopefully at a time again some time soon, the memories of that night might have brought some warmth to Noire, with a flush to her cheeks in tow, but at the moment, she couldn't quite conjure up the same feelings as she looked back to that evening. As recent as she understood it still was, Nepgear's awakening the next morning and the events that had both preceded and followed it really only made it seem further and further away.

Though perhaps it was the _literal_ distance Neptune was keeping that was the primary cause of things. It wasn't as though Noire didn't suspect why Neptune was doing this... on a surface level, at least, so she could say to herself she "got" it and leave it be for the time being as she worked over here in Planeptune. After how badly she had reacted to Neptune approaching her about the Nepstation to begin with, she had told herself she would lay off Neptune for a while, prove to Neptune she could keep it together like how Neptune was proving to her she could work hard, but...

Noire was starting to think an intervention might be necessary if her wife kept this up. She dared not peek ahead and see how long it would be before she and Neptune, heaven forbid, actually got to speak to each other in the third part of the story now that it was finally here.

"You know what? This whole two Basilicoms thing is getting old... I don't like it, and I doubt Nepgear is a fan either." Noire added to herself under her breath. Ceasing her spinning around — she had to admit that if nothing else, Neptune knew how to pick out chairs — Noire decided she might as well try to accomplish _something_ here before she had to get back to the Lastation work she'd brought with her after her last trip over there. "I wonder if she went and took Histoire with her. I've barely seen her lately either. I know she's been seeing Nepgear, but..."

It was unfortunate, but it couldn't be helped that Planeptune was understaffed for what they were doing, what they wanted to do, for the new console. They had taken a lot of hits after the Nepcast had failed, and ironically, many of those capable of working on the project had already gone off and moved on to other nations — one of them being Lastation.

"That's... probably actually pretty awkward for them..." Noire murmured to herself as she wiped some sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. She could just imagine what news of the marriage would have been like for those types. "Well... Tough luck to them! They should be grateful Neptune is willing to spend so much time over there after they ditched her."

Over there and not over here, a greedy part of Noire added to herself.

She couldn't blame Neptune. Lastation really did have a superior work force compared to Planeptune right now. Noire wondered if that was something else she should address soon — maybe Neptune was trying to beat her to the punch on that one too? If Neptune was just doing this all for the sake of everything she had been saying before, then Noire could understand that... But somehow, she didn't feel that that was it. Not all of it anyway.

"Even if it is, that doesn't mean she needs to move in over there..." the twintailed goddess mumbled. Shaking her head, Noire tossed a hand through her hair, sending a twintail behind her shoulder, and reached for Neptune's desk phone, punching in a familiar string of numbers.

Nepgear clearly wanted to see her sister — or had clearly wanted to see her. Noire was starting to worry if she'd come to resent her before long if this kept on, and since Neptune had basically dumped Nepgear in her wife's lap by doing what she was, Noire couldn't very well let that happen, now could she?

"She'd better answer..." Noire began to tap a finger on the desk impatiently. She- She had told herself after their fight she'd go easy on Neptune, so she'd go easy on Neptune. She had a lot of things she wanted to say to Neptune, but she could hold it back. She could. She was pretty sure that this time she was definitely in the right, whatever Neptune's reasons were, so even going easy on her, she still wouldn't have any issues, would she? Of course not. — Ah, someone picked up! "Neptune, listen, I need to-"

"Sis?"

The goddess blinked. Slowly, she blinked again.

Come to think of it, she had only been seeing Uni when she was over in Lastation too, hadn't she?

... Was this some kind of conspiracy...?

Shaking her head, Noire decided she would deal with Uni later — preferably in person. That relationship was one, she was starting to learn, that benefitted a lot from being able to see facial expressions and... things... like that...? Aaah, it was hard, but she was learning, alright? She wouldn't let Neptune of all be able be able to hold that over her head for much longer, that was for sure.

This whole mess with Neptune and Nepgear had gotten her to start questioning so much, and she liked to think she found herself and had gotten on the right track now, but could she be positive?

"Hi, Uni. Do you know where..." Her voice trailing off, Noire bit her lip. It was true she wanted to get right into discussing Neptune, but that would be the wrong thing to do, wouldn't it? It would, wouldn't it? Mentally going over her schedule, making sure she would be okay for it, Noire decided she could approach this subject first after all. "You know, before that, this is good luck. I actually wanted to talk to you about something. Will you be around the Basilicom tomorrow afternoon?"

"T-Tomorrow? Ah, of course I can- will be!" Uni's reply seemed oddly eager to Noire, but she decided not to think about that too much — she was just glad to hear that Uni would be available. That was one problem solved, she hoped. "Maybe while you're here, you can go over some of the things I've been doing alone while you've been gone, and... together, maybe you could go over it and see where I could improve...?"

That caught Noire off guard.

"Tomorrow?" The goddess wasn't sure what to make of the request. It wasn't that she was too busy for it or anything like that — she wouldn't be making it a point to fly over there if that were the case. It was simply that from what she had gathered from Kei and her own observations of what Uni had been up to... Was that actually necessary? "Tomorrow, huh..."

Squeezing her eyes shut, Noire pressed a finger to her forehead and thought. How was she supposed to handle this situation? Her instincts were telling her to simply refuse Uni outright — be blunt, tell her it wasn't necessary, just be right to the point about it, and get back to the main reason she had called. It wasn't like she had called to talk to or about Uni or anything!

* * *

"If you're that concerned about it, I probably shouldn't come at all. I don't want to keep you from focusing." Noire told Uni. This would help Uni by giving her the time to improve herself and her confidence if she was really that worried about it. Uni didn't need to see Noire or spend time with her, she just wanted to better her work ethic. Noire was so proud!

* * *

Noire swallowed. Nervous eyes darted around, their owner's gaze settling in the direction of a large box in the corner of the office, before quickly darting away once again.

It had taken them a bit of time to get here, but lately... Noire was starting to feel like she might just have finally started to grasp at a better relationship with Uni. The days where she felt like Uni was this little jewel that she needed to keep stashed away and protected — alien to her, to be gazed at but not really ever understood — were feeling further and further away every time the two spoke, or so Noire felt. It wasn't like Noire didn't want to protect Uni, of course, but she wanted to do it... from close up, perhaps...?

Regardless, the point was that this presented an entirely different problem to Noire.

"Hello...?"

* * *

"Uni, if you can't keep up, maybe I should take over myself when I get there." Noire offered to Uni. It would be for the best if Uni wasn't distracted by anything other than what she needed to work on. Uni wouldn't mind having the work taken away from her and Noire moving in to do it all herself. Then Uni could do her best!

* * *

The more she indulged in exploring this newfound relationship, testing the waters, learning just how she felt about it, wanting to see her sister shine brighter and brighter and even _brighter_ than that... the more, much to both her horror and curiosity, Noire found herself with... urges?

She didn't quite understand them, but they... well, surely, they were coming forth from within her because she was becoming a normal sister and just wanted to enjoy looking at her sister's accomplishments, right? All sisters felt these sorts of things. She was perfectly normal in this respect. Nor-mal.

Because it was no secret that Noire was very proud goddess. She was proud of herself, of her work, of her appearance, of her nation, of just about everything that she was involved in! So it was natural that other things of hers, like... oh, she didn't know... her sister, just to name a completely _random_ example off the top of her head, fell into that category of things she could hypothetically take pride in too.

"Um... Sis...? Did we get disconnected...? Hello?"

* * *

"Uni, you're still falling behind even now? This is why I didn't bring you along when we fought the Deity of Sin. Please try to catch up." Noire told Uni her honest(?) feelings before ending the call. Uni didn't need to hear praise from her to improve, negative reinforcement was always the way to go! Uni would be the greatest CPU Candidate ever in no time at all!

* * *

Shortly before Nepgear had woken up, Uni had been interviewed by one of Gamindustri's "elite" journalists, one that often stopped by Lastation for work in fact.

Just this week, the article had finally been published. It went into detail covering the CPU Candidate and all about how she had been taking all of the recent events — the marriage of her sister, the changes in Lastation, what she thought of her future role in Gamindustri... She had given very professional, informed, trained, proud, cute, wise, and all around great answers — she had done her nation proud.

Why, Uni's picture had even been plastered all over the front page of the magazine it had been published in!

"Sis...? Um... Noire?" Concern was starting to enter the voice on the other end of the line at this point. "Are you still there?"

* * *

"Lady Black Sister, I regret to inform you that we have at last located our goddess, Lady Black Heart. Be warned, however, that what I am about to tell you _cannot_ get back to the CPU's family, but as she was your direct superior, I feel it is your right to know. You see, the goddess was found hiding in the Soulsac Caverns, surrounded by body pillows with the image of her younger sister decorating them, which she claimed was all she needed for sustenance. Furthermore, we also found a pile of... Forgive me, hold on a moment... Wait, Lady Black Sister _is_ Lady Black Heart's sister...? So she had it so bad she even forced it onto her next-in-line's official title...? My _god_... O-Oh, right... Ahem. Miss, it appears as though I have made a grave error. I would appreciate it if you just pretended that no one has called you this afternoon. Goodbye."

Now hold on just one minute, that one was a _little_ too over the to-

* * *

Which finally led to this strange new problem Noire had found herself facing.

For some reason, as if she had been possessed by some sort of demon, a powerful force unlike anything Noire had ever before faced... Noire had ordered one hundred and seven copies of the magazine in question. One hundred because she wanted one hundred and then seven more for good luck... because... w-well, it had made sense when she was placing the order, okay?!

And in this one magnificent swoop, she had put every moment of Vert's "I need three copies" to shame — and she did it without an ounce of shame or hesitation herself.

It wasn't like she had any reason to feel it. She was looking on over her sister's growth, after all.

As Uni's voice finally brought her back down to Gamindustri, Noire shook her head furiously. She had to remember to hide that box before Neptune came back! It was her treas-errr, it was an important collection of her sister's accomplishments, that was all! She was just keeping a record! She was just being a normal proud sister! Th-that was it!

... wait, maybe that _was_ actually all it was, and that was that _why_ she was so emba-

Noire readjusted the phone in her hands, her cheeks just a touch flushed.

"S-Sorry, Uni! It's just, I... Haven't you been doing exceptionally well on your own...? Do you really need my help with anything?" Stumbling over her words, now fairly distracted by that accursed box, Noire cleared her throat and turned around in her chair so it was out of her sight — thank goodness for Neptune's taste in furniture! "You know, I've been over here so much recently, you would probably need to fill me in before I wold even be able to comment, wouldn't you?"

On the other line, Noire heard a strange, strangled noise coming from her sister.

"Uni? Did something happen over there?" Not that she was one to talk about strange phone etiquette, given her actions just a few moments prior, but now that she was back in the driver's seat of herself again, Noire could conveniently forget all of that.

* * *

Her sister didn't want to spend any extra time with her. She had failed with Nepgear, and now she had failed in her attempt to keep Noire over here longer too...

... but it was because her sister was actually seeing the progress she was making...?

... which she showed by rejecting her suggestion to spend time together!...

... because her sister thought she was doing a good job...?

Huh? Huh?

Hold on. Hold on a minute!

Why was it that she'd just gotten something she'd longed for for so long like it was nothing, yet she wasn't happy about it at all? She had wanted to give Noire more reason to spend time with her, but...

What in the world was Uni supposed to do with this situation...?!


	5. Chapter 5: The PLOT Thickens

"Okay. I'll be at the Basilicom then. ... Yeah, I think so. ... Right. See you then."

Feeling content with herself and her plans for the following day, Noire leaned back in Neptune's trusted spinny chair and closed her eyes. She had done a good job with Uni, hadn't she? She had stumbled a few more times, but if she compared herself to how she used to be — really, wasn't it proof of her progress simply in that she was able to see the difference in itself?

Tomorrow, she would talk to Uni about everything that had been going on while they were out together, casually slip in the question of her sister's lack of visits to Planeptune, for if Noire was anything she was an _expert_ at acting casual, and then they could have some lunch together. Maybe they'd even...

"... ah."

Sitting so far upright in the seat that she was practically standing, at last Noire realized her grave error — caught up in working through the conversation and her hazy head, it had taken her to this moment, when it was too late to say anything naturally during her phone call, for her it to finally sink in what she had (hadn't, really) done.

She had never asked whether or not Neptune was around. And she had called wanting to speak to her wife in the first place!

Reaching for the phone to call Uni back, Noire cursed how flustered she had gotten, wondering if there was a balance she needed to strike with this "sister" thing, before going to push the call button — but just as she was about to start the call, the goddess hesitated. Wouldn't doing this give away the fact that she had only originally called to talk to Neptune?

"Actually... I'll just call again later. It wouldn't be strange if I did that," she reasoned with herself, hanging the phone up and collapsing back into her wife's favorite chair. "But that doesn't help me now, does it..."

Yawning, Noire let her arms hang at her sides for the time being. She knew she should be reaching over to the side of the desk to pull out those forms, yet instead, she let herself hang there for a moment. She supposed it was natural, given what had to be done, and how much they were doing overall, yet she should be used to heavy workloads, shouldn't she?

"Maybe I'm just getting too used to being with Neptune?" Noire smiled lazily, another yawn escaping her as she laid back and let the misty hands of sleepiness brush over her. That would be nice. Neptune influencing her like that, that was.

Some might have liked to think maybe she was having the same effect on Neptune, helping along with the goddess' bad work ethic, but Noire knew that she was anything but the reason for that. Neptune's bad habits and what had happened to Nepgear had done that. No... If she were to say she was having any sort of effect on Neptune...

 _"You did your best. I'm proud of you."_

 _"I love you."_

 _"I think I would like that. I think I would like that a lot."_

"Y... Yeah."

Hopefully it was that one.

There was that familiar warm and fuzzy feeling she'd been looking for earlier.

Her mind drifting back to her original reason for calling Lastation's Basilicom, Noire recalled how Nepgear had looked. What she had been saying, wanting... Noire was starting to get worried. It didn't bother her when she buried herself in the Basilicom for days on end to work — though she wondered, would it now that she had all of these relationships to think about? — but Nepgear wasn't like that. She also wasn't able to work on much either.

Come to think of it, hadn't Nepgear...

Noire snapped her fingers. Her encounter with Nepgear was still somewhat fresh in her mind, and before she knew it, her fingers were already dialing away at another familiar phone number.

"It's not like Neptune is the _only_ CPU she's missing..."

* * *

Telling her own story to the other Vert had been surprisingly... would enjoyable be the right word for it? Relieving? Enjoyable didn't seem quite right, but relieving made it sound like she was just using the other goddess for her own benefit...

It was nice to be able to talk to someone who just... _got_ things the same way Vert did. She had kept her random spurts of crying to the appropriate parts of the story, at the very least, so even that habit of hers wasn't as bad as it could have been, Vert found.

Although... Vert supposed if she hadn't left out so much, that might not have been the case. As much as she intended to meddle tomorrow for this Vert's benefit, as much as she cared for the other goddess and hoped things would work out for the best for _her_ , she couldn't very well risk her friend doing the same with so much over _here_ potentially being on the line. Whether it was with any one of the other women in Vert's life, that was just a mess she did not want to deal with.

Naturally, then, she had left out the deal she had made with Blanc. For now, as far as this other Vert was concerned, she was still in the process of trying to figure out what to do. More than anything else, Vert was worried the knowledge that she was to be in _some_ sort of relationship with Blanc over here — or rather, she would be just as soon as Blanc finally returned the various messages she had been leaving, that is — would instigate something.

She knew she and Blanc had to get things moving soon, but with this Vert actually _wanting_ to be in a relationship with Blanc... well... _a_ Blanc, anyway, Vert could only imagine what "she" would do if she felt she could go about her unrequited relationship free of problems — or even if she just wanted to help out.

Yes, leaving out as many of the parts about Blanc as she could, not to mention that affair with Nepgear, had been for the best. It wasn't like there was a high chance of anything of interest happening during the exact time she was having this so-called "date" with her counterpart's Blanc — the other Vert could just stay inside and play all of Vert's games to her heart's content, if she liked. Maybe she'd spend the day with Chika, perhaps?

... She'd better talk to Chika later if she wanted to leave them alone together.

"I really don't mind if you want to stay for more than the date..." Sniffling, the Vert in question wiped at her eyes as she trailed after her host, still seemingly in the process of taking in what Vert was dealing with over here in this world's Leanbox. They were headed to Vert's office — Vert had said she wanted to show her some things before tomorrow, so they wouldn't have to do any of it in a rush. "Why, I'll stay here for a week if you want!"

Vert shot a look behind her, a brow quirked and the traces of a smirk playing on her lips.

"You're saying you want me to spend a week over there while pretending to be you, spending time with the goddess you're suggesting I pretend to be in a relationship with, all while she and I chase down the one she's really got feelings for in order to make them jealous? This sounds like a game I played once..." Vert placed a finger to her lips, her expression becoming rather thoughtful. "Of course, there weren't any girls in that game, but none of the characters were voiced by a man, so I suppose if you just listened to it, it could actually be fairly close..."

The other Vert's cheek twitched. Was this what it was like to talk to her?

On the other hand...

She licked her lips. Gulp. No no, she couldn't. She mustn't. What would it say about her if she a-

"Do you... still have that game...?"

-sked, wait, hold on, she already went and asked the question anywaaaay!

To her surprise, Vert just giggled.

"Oh, don't you worry, I fully intended to leave it for you to play tomorrow. I'm quite positive it will be to your liking." Pushing open the door to her office and stepping aside to allow her guest to step past, Vert beamed at her fellow Vert. "Be sure to go for that handsome white haired boy's route straightaway. I have the strangest feeling it's going to be _exactly_ what you're looking for."

"Well... If you _insist_..." The visiting Vert let her words trail off, her tone turning playful as she walked into her fellow Vert's office.

"I assure you, I most definitely am insisting," came the quick response from the blonde. She was already considering whether or not her lovely companion would enjoy the sequel — oh, and there was the rather steamy animation to consider as well. They really _should_ get together more often, shouldn't they...

"Wonderful! And... What's this?" Stopping just in front of her host's desk, the Ultradimension's Vert peered over the side as she caught sight of the blinking lights on the phone, indicating there were new messages. Glancing at the phone's owner to see if there were any objections (she saw none), Vert moved around the desk to read the display. "Oh, goodness, it looks like I kept you so long that you missed a call. Do you need to take this? After all..."

Instinctively, Vert looked down — like her gaze had been forcefully drawn there. For the first time since this other Vert had arrived, her problems felt real again. Talking about them had almost made them feel like they were all just a story, but... This was surely the moment of truth. Blanc must have finally worked up the nerve to tell her it was time to put that plan of theirs into motion.

"It looks like someone from Planeptune left you a message." A playful smile spread across the other Vert's face as Vert looked back up at her in alarm — clearly not expecting to hear that it had been Planeptune. As for the other Vert, well, it was already clear just looking at her that it seemed as though she was getting the wrong idea. "My... I think I understand why you were so surprised about my interest in Blanc now...! Someone looks like they've been caught red handed. I wonder who it could be? I can't say I'm not just a little bit jealous, you know. I never thought things would really get taken to _that_ level with sweet, adorable little-"

Whether her dimensionally deluded friend was implying that she thought Vert was in a relationship with Planeptune's CPU Candidate, or that she was simply jealous to have a chance with the target of her affections, Vert was sorry to say that she was wrong on both counts — and much as she'd love to spend some time with Nepgear just being the sister figure Vert so adored being for her, she had to get past this and on to things in the present before that was okay again.

"I'll have you know that it's not like that, and I am afraid it never will be." Sighing, Vert strode past her desk to settle into an armchair, placing a hand to her forehead. She was just... incredibly glad that Blanc hadn't called. That was stress she hadn't wanted to deal with now. She didn't need that weighing on her when she would be helping out this Vert with _her_ Blanc, and it would have been a disaster had she interfered while this Vert were here. Her voice growing distant as her mind began to grow cloudy, Vert laughed. "As a matter of fact, you've a better chance with her than I do right now. It's a shame you aren't interested."

Oh... What was she to do about this? She had no idea what Nepgear could possibly want with her... Had she figured out who those anonymous gifts had been from...? Had they been too obvious? No, even if they hadn't been, Nepgear was bright, perhaps she shouldn't have after all... Maybe Nepgear just wanted to see her? Vert was sorry to say that for now, that wasn't...

Well, why wasn't it? Vert should be able to see her sweet little "sister" as _just_ a sister... Even if she had to force back some shameful ulterior motives in the process, it wasn't like those would have been her only ones...

But it wouldn't be fair to Nepgear with all she's been through to visit her with such things being there at all, would it?

And what was taking Blanc so long? ... No, Vert supposed she couldn't blame Blanc for wanting to take things slow. It wasn't as though Vert was in any rush, after all — rather, she was more than happy to rush off to the other dimension and play hooky for a little, just to clear her mind. Blanc hadn't wanted to take this _at all_ , and with how things were going, slow wasn't the worst way to go in the world.

After the initial hype of Neptune and Noire's big announcement, things had settled down — not that this meant much in the long term, but it at least meant that so long as Neptune didn't try for something crazy like putting a bunch of consoles in stores without telling anyone, then announcing they were on sale then and there, she and Blanc were fine (or "fine") for the time being.

Once more, Vert sighed, before smiling at her counterpart. All things considered, she couldn't say that she envied that aspect of the other Vert's situation.

"Really now... What a pair we are."

"Oh, ah... Yes. Right."

Watching the blonde goddess before her, the once human Vert felt very... small. She had never tried to dwell too much on the fact that, despite appearances, she was actually the youngest of the goddesses back home, with Peashy being the lone exception. Lately, though... She had been giving it some more thought, with her newfound interest in Blanc sparking it all the more, and in this moment, in the presence of this other Vert, as she sat there wearing such an expression, Vert felt she understood, if only a little, why the other goddesses from this dimension had been so taken off guard when she cried.

This womanly figure sitting down in front of her was a goddess, wasn't she?

"Oh my goodness, if I'm not careful with myself, I'm going to accidentally trigger a very troublesome flag..." she murmured to herself jokingly. A twinkle in her eyes, she stepped away from her host's desk to admire some of the posters and other merchandise scattered around the room. Not even Vert's office could escape the love of her hobbies, it seemed — not that this Vert was any different. "Ah, but you know... At least we'd be able to save on voice acting costs for those scenes, heehee..."

Putting those thoughts to the side for the time being — it wasn't like she had any real romantic options right now, who knew, maybe a fling like that as just what she needed? ... my my my, she _really_ must have been taking this Blanc thing badly if she was feeling like that... — the Ultradimension's Vert turned around and walked over to her host, before dramatically holding up a finger in front of her.

"A-Ah? Is something the matter? You were... saying something about flags, yes...?" Vert blinked up at her guest. What had brought this on? Was there some sort of event she intended to trigger? Could it be that they had unknowingly stumbled upon the famed "wincest" route by mistake and had to face the consequences...? Ah, oh, goodness, if that was it, Vert wasn't sure if her heart was ready- Not yet at least- "Hold on a moment, let me freshen up first, I don't want to look bad for the CG, just give me a-"

Somehow able to completely understand the misunderstanding going on in the other Vert's mind, the Ultradimension's Vert laughed lightly, before she took on an incredibly fierce expression and took a hold of Vert's hands in her own!

"Oh my! I'm not sure I'm ready for this!"

"Forget that, would you?" The dimensionally displaced Vert let go of Vert's hands, turning around to look towards the wall of Vert's office. It was a very dramatic pose indeed — could she have practiced? "Before anything else... I need to prepare you for the 'date' you'll be going on tomorrow. You can't have Blanc wanting to cease our arrangement, even if it _is_ one primarily for her own benefit, but she can't get the wrong idea, so..."

Ah, so this was it.

Vert sighed. Was it one of relief or disappointment? Regardless, the faint blush that had sprung up began to fade, and she nodded at her lookalike.

"I see, I see. Then how about this? I'll pretend to be Blanc for you." Rising from her seat, Vert held her arms out to her sides, putting herself on frank display for her guest. "I can't say I'll ever like any Blanc's company the same way as you do, but I've still spent enough time with 'mine' to appreciate how cute she can be when she's not being a little... let's call it troublemaker. So I believe I should be able to provide an accurate show for you to play off of — then I'll know how you would act, or how you want me to act, and can follow along accordingly."

What a wonderful way to get information, Vert told herself. She had to pat herself on the back for this one.

The other Vert frowned. It was a good idea, but... As she took in the Vert before her, she couldn't keep herself from glancing down... specifically towards a certain area of the body... that is to say, the rather large area that-

"Thinking of you as her may be a little difficult..."

Vert's eyebrow quirked.

"You say it would be... a _little_ difficult?"

There was only the briefest of pauses before both Verts burst into laughter.


	6. Chapter 6: The Plan II

Had she really thought this would be fun?

It had been just a day since she had agreed to assist with Blanc's once seemingly adorable little love dilemma, but now that it was time to get down to business, Vert was finding herself more and more disappointed the more this "strategy conference" went on.

The day and meeting both were turning out to be was a disappointment, but of those around her, which _person_ was most disappointing? Was it with herself, for having agreed to this silly idea, or Blanc, for apparently not actually seeming to _have_ any real idea how she should go about it? Then again, she _supposed_ that was where she came in, wasn't it? For now, one incredibly important question remained unanswered... but before she could even ask _that_ question, there was another she had to ask even before that one.

"So _once again_ , let's start from the top..." Uncrossing and then crossing her legs once again, Vert leaned across the outdoor table she and Blanc were seated at to look the other goddess firmly in the eye. "You've told me all about how you _intend_ to stop Plutia and Noire's relationship from progressing, how you _want_ Plutia all to yourself, but, as I asked earlier before you told me the lengths you would go to defeating Noire if she had already _won_ this 'battle'... how is it that actually you plan to do any of this? I've been waiting very, _very_ patiently for this information, Blanc, but so far you haven't delivered."

The brunette goddess gave Vert a flat look.

"Hey... What do you mean? Isn't that what we're here for? Right now?" Blanc countered. She was clearly annoyed by Vert's tone. She also happened to think her "if we just lock Noire up for a while her tendencies to be attracted to her 'masters' will have her fall for whoever frees her after that" strategy was perfectly sound and not at all as extreme as Vert seemed to believe it was! "If I knew that, would I need you?"

And that opinion was written all over her face at that moment.

Ohhhhh _yes_ , Vert was finding this whole matter so _very_ disappointing right now.

It was time to ask the question she had _really_ been wanting to ask.

"Blanc, let me be frank about something. Do you think you have a chance _right now_ with her? If Plutia isn't interested in you in that way at the moment, then how we go about this will be very different. I believe the fastest way would be using me to make her envious, but if she doesn't care, then that starting point is out of the question." Sighing, the blonde closed her eyes for a moment. She almost felt as though she was explaining the mechanics of one of her games. Perhaps she should try not sounding so... unrelated? Mechanical...? "Blanc... This may be a little hard to start off, but we can't do anything until we know where you stand... You do realize that, don't you?"

The other goddess remained silent. Whether or not this was a good thing, Vert couldn't tell, but she took it as good a sign as any that she could keep going. Blanc _had_ come to her for help, and this was part of that help.

"Breaking the two of them up is all well and good in theory, but if we do it for _nothing_ , then..." Vert trailed off. She could see the gears turning in Blanc's head, judging by the expressions appearing on her face before her. It didn't help that Blanc was turning green and pointedly keeping silent either. "Blanc, please don't tell me that was also why you came to me..."

If Blanc's expression didn't already give Vert the answer she was dreading...

"Sh-Shut up, okay?!" Blanc crossed her arms. She had a stubborn expression on her face as ever, and after a moment to contemplate her words, she continued. "It works in harems, you know!"

Somehow, the truth was even worse than Vert had thought it would be.

"And?" Vert crossed her arms, looking at Blanc like a teacher might look at a troubled student that was trying their best but simply _did not_ understand how hopeless they truly were. Thank goodness for the ever knowledgeable, all beautiful teacher! "How well do _your_ harems sell at those events of yours?"

A very brief moment of silence.

Perhaps it was to mourn?

"So..." Blanc was looking anywhere but towards the other goddess. "What would you do if you were me right now?"

"Not very well, I take it?" the blonde asked playfully.

"It's not my fault different world stories suddenly became super popular out of nowhere, alright? I have to just adapt to the market and... Ugh, forget it!" Blanc groaned. The blonde just would never be able to get it — she was a consumer of that kind of thing, not a creator! The trials and tribulations she had gone through... It was in a whole other league! "I think Neptune created a whole new genre when she showed up, so cut me some slack here, would you? Weren't we here to talk about Plutia and Noire?"

Vert sighed. She supposed that was enough of that then. Shame, that seemed like it would have been fun. Briefly, she wondered if Blanc would ever want her help with _that_ someday... But that, she knew, would never happen in a million years.

Her loss, Vert supposed.

"Very well. In this situation, what you need to do first is show your _appeal_ to Plutia. We'll move on to making her jealous of me only if we think she's actually looking at you. If we're going to do this assuming it doesn't matter whether or not they're together, then that opens up our options, but for your sake, I _would_ like to make sure... Though trying to learn that alone could be... messy." Vert's eyes began to sparkle. She could give Blanc a little more of a push. "Although, that might not necessarily be bad. I'm sure you've wanted to get back at Noire for some things for quite some time, haven't you? This could be the perfect chance. Pity for her, I suppose it's too bad for her that she didn't reach out to me for help first, but now that I've been contracted, all I can say is that I'm obligated to your side of things, yes?"

Jeez... Vert really sounded like she had her head in the game. It really looked like all those games she played might be good for something after all. She hated to admit it, but Blanc's interest was piqued.

"Messy how?" she asked.

"We could set up a meeting between the two and send them to different places. Or we simply invite them out separately. Either will work. My, the latter option is probably easier, really, but it could be fun to get crazy about it. Regardless, what matters most is that you will be where we send Plutia, and I will be where we send Noire. I'll keep Noire busy, and you have fun with Plutia." Vert grinned devilishly, puffing out her chest with pride. "How do you like it? For our first day's plan, I think it more than suffices, wouldn't you say?"

"You're a real she-devil," Blanc retorted, barely restraining herself from snorting at how devious Vert was trying to make herself look.

"I hope you don't mind that I take that as a compliment considering it's coming from the sweet little imp who summoned me in the first place." Vert, however, was all smiles. Like a regular succubus.

Blanc gave her a warning look.

"Watch it." Lowee's goddess snapped.

"Oh, I intend to. All the way to the end." Smirking coyly, Vert raised an arm with a flourish in her seat and stood up halfway, bowing slightly. "Wasn't that also part of our contract?"

"Dammit, Vert, now _I'm_ watching it!" Holding up her hands in front of her, Blanc shook her head. She wasn't about to smash Vert with her hammer on their first day — if she couldn't hold out now, she had no hope of doing so until this was settled — but boy was she tempted to. "Put it away!"

"No one made you look." Vert replied calmly, not looking at all bothered by the idea — after all, size was justice! Justifize? More like Justisize! "You should be more honest with yourself. Maybe you'll go through that growth spurt you've been wanting if you stop holding yourself back."

Slamming a fist onto the table, Blanc growled. She would prevail. She would prevail!

"How can I not when it takes up my entire field of vision?" She shook her head. Cool down, cool down. Think of other her's snow palace. That was cool. Downright chilly even. There. Much better. "Come on, let's go. Your plan's not half bad, so we should put it into action before the two of them have a chance to elope on me."

Raising an eyebrow thoughtfully, Vert placed a finger innocently on her chin. Blanc was already walking away from her? What a busybody — and what an odd concern she had as well.

Yet if that was what Blanc was worrying about, it _did_ raise the question...

"Blanc, if they're going to elope _on_ you, then they clearly must not have anything against you taking part... You're a goddess too, aren't you? Why not just see if you can legalize polyga-"

" ** _DROP DEAD!_** "

* * *

This seemed like it was almost going _too_ well so far. It wasn't as though the "this" that was going well was particularly _much_ just yet, but even so, Vert had to admit she was rather surprised. For such a cockamamie plan to have even gotten off the ground was something she felt should be applauded, if she did say so herself. That's right, little people (that means you, Blanc, wherever you are!) — applaud her! Give her the glorious, standing ovation that she deserved!

Naturally, Blanc was simply so pleased to have gotten to have a chance to be alone with Plutia for the afternoon that Vert was quite sure their plan had already slipped her mind by the time the brunette had turned away from her. Vert supposed she should start thinking up another plan for the inevitable moment Blanc returned to her and informed her she hadn't the slightest idea where she stood.

Poor thing. She might just be setting herself up for a whole world of hurt.

Should Vert take it as a point in Blanc's favor that Noire had been free to spend some time with Vert this afternoon? Or were she and Plutia already so close now that Noire was already past the stage of needing to bother trying to woo the other goddess...?

The blonde really had to wonder.

"So? Was there something you wanted from me?" Speak of the devil in twintails — there was Noire now. She seemed hesitant to join Vert, but Vert was fairly confident that that would change soon enough. "It isn't like you to just call me out of the blue and tell me to come to some cafe in the middle of nowhere."

Ignoring the jab at Leanbox — really, the fact Noire was here right on time "in the middle of nowhere" spoke volumes to her true feelings — Vert simply smiled, motioning Noire to the seat across from her. She'd even gone ahead and bought the other goddess a drink for her so she wouldn't be too parched while they passed the time chatting before things got _really_ heavy between them.

The black haired goddess looked from Vert to the cup. It hadn't been tampered with, and the straw was still sitting on top, all wrapped up and untouched. It wasn't like this was Nepgear or Peashy or anything like that, after all... Well, she supposed it wouldn't hurt. Since she _was_ here already.

"Okay, fine, fine. I'll hear you out." Plopping down onto her seat with all the grace one could expect from an awkward turtle such as Noire, she stripped open her straw and jammed it into the cup. With her drink ready to go, Noire lifted it to her lips and took a sip. Almost instantly, her eyes lit up and she began to smile in innocent excitement. She was even holding one of her cheeks with her hands, she was so taken! "Ah! It's yum..."

Locking eyes with Vert, Noire hurriedly made an attempt to cover up her reaction. Her cheeks began to flush as she realized there was no undoing what had just been done.

"...mm... I mean, i-it's not bad." Noire corrected herself, setting the sweet drink down and holding the cup between her hands like she no longer knew what she was supposed to do with it. "So... Right, right! Why am I here anyway?"

Leanbox's CPU waved her hand lazily, all smiles and good feelings.

"I know you aren't busy today, Noire, so I thought I'd call you out to have some fun." Clapping her hands together and then placing them in her lap, Vert continued. "It really is good to see you like this. It's been forever since we've spent any time together, just the two of us."

"Really?" Noire just looked affronted by the other goddess. Vert couldn't say that she hadn't expected this reaction at least a little, but somehow it seemed like Noire was taking it just a touch worse than she had thought she would have. Had she by chance touched on a nerve? "I don't think 'it's been forever' is really right. When have you _ever_ wanted to do anything with me alone?"

Vert tilted her head ever so slightly, ever so sweetly, and blinked innocently at Noire.

"My, is it really so strange that I wanted to play with you for a little while?" Waving a finger at the tsundere, Vert couldn't help but giggle at the reaction she earned. No wonder Neptune seemed to find this so fun. "I realize you avoid going over there like the plague, but as it so happens, the 'you' and the 'me' that enjoy our recently wedded friend Neptune's company on a regular basis happen to be much closer than you and I are. They enjoyed all sorts of 'cross-platform' playing before 'you' got married, and who knows... Maybe they'll keep up their games even after?"

As Vert expected her to, Noire seemed rather mystified by this newly obtained knowledge of the fact that the equally troubled version of her on the other side of the portal apparently got along with Vert's own counterpart. In fact, the subject of Neptune's wedding in itself seemed to grab Noire as well, but that was an entirely different matter, Vert supposed... As far as their counterparts' relationship, truthfully, it had surprised Vert a little too, but what was she to do but join in when that Noire had shown up unannounced one afternoon after she and the Vert on that side had spent two days straight gaming together?

Oh, yes, that had been so such fun...!

It really was too bad Blanc had forced Vert into the position of having to pick sides. So sorry, Noire. No hard feelings, Vert hoped.

"Indeed! And it just so happened that there was a movie playing this afternoon that I wanted to see, but isn't it the kind of movie you like as well?" To prove her point, Vert held out two tickets to the film in question — already obtained, with the implication being that she intended to invite Noire from the very beginning of this encounter. A surefire tactic when it came to types like Noire, if she did say so herself!

"Oh... Oh... You mean, you actually remembered something like that...? I see..." Noire lowered her gaze, awkwardly clutching her cup. If Vert didn't know better, she might have believed Noire was smiling a little smile to herself.

Blanc really had her work cut out for her, having to compete with a doll like this. Then again, considering this girl's rather eccentric tastes, ones she shared with Blanc at that, Vert supposed she shouldn't be _too_ generous... even if an outsider might think Vert was leading Noire on right now if they knew what had brought all of this on.

In truth, Vert _would_ have felt guilty if not for the fact that she had an incredible trump card up her sleeve: setting aside the fact that she had called Noire out at this time specifically so that Plutia would definitely not be near Noire or be able to have plans with Noire when Blanc went after Plutia, every single thing Vert was saying otherwise happened to be the truth. Wasn't that the greatest thing to have in a situation like this? She was invincible!

"Now then, we have a few minutes before we need to get to the theater. Let's chat, shall we? How have things been? I haven't heard from any of you since we went to the wedding together." Now that, Vert knew, was a little underhanded of her, but it didn't hurt to lay down some foundation just in case she found herself in need of an alibi. "It's such a far cry from when Neptune was here with us and we were together all the time, wouldn't you agree?"

"Well... I guess so." Noire paused. She seemed to be considering something, and after a moment, she gave Vert a shy look. "Thanks for the drink, by the way."

Noire didn't let much on beyond that, sadly — not that Vert was particularly keen on pressing about the matter with Plutia right away. She'd give away everything, and then where would that leave her? And thankfully, even Noire managed to keep it together for their chat, and soon enough, they were off.

As they got up from their seats to head off to the movie, Vert couldn't help but wonder how Blanc was holding off. Blanc hadn't attempted to contact her, not even by leaving a simple message, so that would mean she and Plutia were still having a good time, wouldn't it? If she were to compare to how she and Noire were faring right now, wouldn't Blanc be the Noire of that duo? Now that was an amusing thought if she did say so herself.

"I wonder what she'd look like in pigtails..." the goddess mused to herself as the pair walked past vibrant posters and cardboard cutouts showing off the film they were about to watch — it was about a lone hero, backed into a corner, without anyone to rely on. A real emotional, heart and soul crushing tale, supposedly. "Maybe I'll ask her to play a little dress up for some compensation for today later."

"Did you say something, Vert?" came the voice of the blonde's date for the afternoon.

"Me? I can't say I did," Vert calmly assured her.

The pigtails would come in due time, Vert supposed. In any case, this would all be over soon if Plutia gave Blanc something definite to go off of. Noire wasn't looking like she would be giving Vert any signs just yet, but she was sure she'd find the chance to sneak in a question about Plutia before long — and who knew? Maybe Blanc would find the courage to take care of this on her own before Vert could act.

This road before the two of them was layered with uncertainty, but Vert had agreed to help Blanc, and as a woman of her word — most of the time, at least — this meant with certainty that Blanc would have her chance with Plutia yet.

So until she got it, Vert would just have to enjoy the show.


	7. Chapter 7: You Go Girl!

In a dark and lonely corner of Gamindustri, in the darkest and loneliest alleys of Lastation, a lone figure walked the streets. Lonely. Lonely as could be. Some might say she had been forgotten. Some might say she had never been there to begin with. But that wasn't the way it was supposed to go for her. It hadn't been meant to be this way! She had been meant for so much more... But things had changed. Gamindustri had changed.

 _Justice_ had changed.

"How does that sound? It's a pretty good reintroduction, right?"

The question went without an answer. A catchy theme song did not start to play.

All that happened was a lone girl standing in the middle of an alley stood with her back straight, waiting patiently for the answer to her question. Patiently. Patiently. Patiently...

Nothing.

Nisa sighed. Of course it went without an answer. Not even the Neptunes and Noires on the buildings surrounding her could answer — they weren't real.

She was all by herself out here, just doing some low level quests to keep the streets clean of evil. Was this what she had been reduced to? Becoming Lastation's janitor? Was she even _that_ right now? She almost wished she had listened more to that weird blonde girl she had met the other day, but Nisa didn't have time to talk about strategies and Grimy Angles when she was too busy chasing down villainy and evil!

Or getting a job starring in a commercial for the upcoming Nepstation edition of Four Goddesses Online to pay her rent.

It was more or less the same thing, wasn't it?

"Awww, this isn't right..." the heroine of justice moaned to no one in particular. Casting a look around her, she kicked a particularly evil looking building lightly. "And where's all the trash I'm supposed to be cleaning up for the quest anyway? Everything had already been cleaned up pretty nicely when they requested for help putting up all of these posters for the Nepstation. Did someone beat me to it?"

Wouldn't that just be her luck? If she couldn't even be a _janitor_ right...

She still remembered the good old days... An integral-to-the-plot hero so amazing people would go as far as to _pay_ just to have the honor of fighting alongside of her! An even _more_ integral-to-the-plot hero that was overleveled when recruited, provided no one had been grinding beforehand! Amazing one liners! Fleshed out personality! Superb character development! A glorious theme song, second only to her glorious chest!

"Those sure were the days..." Nisa sighed dreamily. She had unconsciously taken on a pose as she reminisced, and even now as she stood with her arms crossed, her scarf was somehow floating in the air as if it had a will of its own. The spirit of justice was still as strong with her as it had ever been...

But did Gamindustri need her right now? If she had to guess, it seemed like Neptune had been cleaning house, leaving her with little to do — maybe she should have stuck around in Planeptune after all. It might've even gotten her some appearances in the previous story arc! But ohhh nooo, instead, Cave and 5pb. had totally knocked her clean out of the spotlight... It was all about sex appeal these days, wasn't it?!

"At least Neptune gets it! Or... I guess it'd be Noire now?" Nisa figured it was probably both now that they were married and all. Had to be, right? That was how these things worked. How heroic of Lastation's CPU! ... Not that it helped her much right now, though.

If nothing else, she supposed she could take some solace in the fact that this time, she had beaten IF and Compa and the rest of them to getting some screentime. Now _that_ was justice for you!

Now where the heck was the trash she was here to deal with? She was getting sick of this wandering around aimlessly!

Just as Nisa was about to call into the Guild to see if she'd made a mistake regarding what she was supposed to be doing or where she was supposed to be doing it (reminder to heroes in training: opening up one's menu to see the quest description the old fashioned was was simply _unheroic_ ), a crash caught Nisa's attention. Soon after, the sound of laughter followed, and then another crash!

This... This...

 ** _This was the sound of evil!_**

"Halt, villains!"

Leaping into action, Nisa dashed towards the source of the sound. To her great surprise, a group of people seemed to have gathered together just a short distance from where she was, and they were in the process of tearing down all of the promotional material she and some of the others had only just put up for the Nepstation.

"Hey, stop that, you devils! What are you doing with those?!" With a mighty cry, Nisa jumped into the air to deliver a swift kick to the back of one of the offenders. "The Basilicom requested those be placed specifically! You can't just tear them down! If you think you'll be able to get away with this in the presence of a hero, then think again! Our goddesses are doing a lot of work, and-"

"And you just kicked me! You're gonna get it!" Apparently not willing to wait to listen to Nisa's heroic speech, the simple minded citizen of uncivility stood to his feet and turned to face her. "Come on, let's show this punk what us generic, one off, single use characters can do, boys! For Lastation!"

Nisa couldn't help but inwardly feel a small — but only small — sense of respect towards the group as they rallied around the man she had kicked over. If only all villains were so devoted to their cause! They would make the heroes shine that much more!

No, more importantly, if only these spirits could ignite in the name of justice instead of evil!

"Sorry about this, but I don't have a lot of time to play with you combatmen today!" Nisa announced as she took great pains to engage the group in a great show of showy combat that showed off just how amazing and heroic she was. "You should repent your crimes and put that spirit towards something good, like me!"

A chorus of laughter erupted from the men that were still standing. Even the ones she had already knocked over somehow just seemed to be invigorated by her words.

"Buddy, you've got it all backwards here — from where we're standing, _you're_ the one stopping _us_ from doing _our_ good deeds!" the devious defier Nisa had kicked earlier informed her devilishly. "And just so you know, we've got some super strong backup coming that'll be able to put you in your place. Any minute now, they'll..."

Nisa didn't give the man a chance to finish. A few of his crew ran off after _that_ heroic punch to the face, leaving only whimpers and cries where they had been moments before.

"I don't know what you're on about, but it just so happens _I've_ been sent here to clean up trash today, and since I haven't found any, in the name of justice, I'm just going to have to do my duty and make do with you evildoers!" Nisa held out a finger towards the man who seemed to be the head honcho of the group, before turning to look at every single remaining person and pointing at them as well. "I hope you're ready to-"

"Hooold on a minute! Hold up a sec, little guy! _You're_ the one who took the quest to clean up the trash that's piled up around here?" one of the devious deviants started off, interrupting Nisa's long practiced heroic finishing speech. "You talkin' about that quest posted in that there them this morning Basilicom, dude?"

The members of the group were exchanging looks with each other, and the mood seemed to be shifting. It was a sight to behold — had Nisa's words finally gotten through to them somehow? Truly, justice had...

... wait.

"Yeah... Hey man, look, I don't know what your deal is, but this stuff _is_ the trash..." another of the foul few continued in his cruel compatriot's stead, motioning to the posters — posters emblazoned with the image of friends and comrades — and other such items they had been in the process of ripping up and tearing down.

"This is all a biiiiig misunderstanding, bro!" yet another of the brazen bunch added, walking fearlessly over to Nisa like the villain he was and slapping her on the back like she was one of their motley crew. "We were the ones who put up that quest, buddy! You wanna help us now, or after we get you your reward? With your help, this'll be cake!"

There seemed to be some sort of change rippling through the group. In their eyes, Nisa seemed like... like a hero! Under normal circumstances, the change Nisa was witnessing before her very eyes was everything she could have possibly wanted to see from such a group after the beatdown she had delivered such a glorious beating unto them.

 **However**.

While this change had been taking place and the group had up and decided Nisa was their new best friend all of their own accord, an altogether completely different sort of change had occurred in Nisa.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING 'DUDE' AND 'BRO' AND 'MAN' AND ' _LITTLE GUY_ ' HERE?!"

The gang of one shot civillians was taken aback. It wasn't windy, yet their new second in command's scarf was flying around like he was standing in the center of a tornado. It wasn't hot, but the badass little bro that was going to help them bring order back to Lastation had burning bright flames in his eyes. Everything had been resolved, but it looked like this person they had called out here to help them out was looking even more ready to pounce...!

"Huh?" "Wha?" "Eh?"

As an aura of Great Justice began to surround the heroine before them, something — something truly shocking, absurd even — was starting to dawn on the group of remaining thugs. An impossible idea, but why else would this mysterious strange calling themselves a hero be so upset? It wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?

"Wait... Buddy... Are you... a _chick_?" one of the men started out hesitantly. It wasn't as though their group was opposed to women — quite the contrary! — but to think that this handsome young fellow could be a lass rather than a lad... Had they made a mistake? "Guys, I think we-"

"Hahaha! No way!" Quick to interrupt his inconclusive cohort, another of the gang slapped his fiendish friend on the back and pointed jovially in Nisa's direction, paying no mind to the increasing size of her Heroic Aura. "Not even Lady White Heart is _that_ fla-"

The man's face collided with the ground a short moment after a gloved fist collided with it.

"Get on the ground! On the ground!" Like an overlord bursting into her throne room to reclaim her kingdom, Nisa roared to the crowd with righteous fury completely unlike that which she had been displaying moments prior. "All of you, right now!"

The increasingly fearful men looked around their numbers in the hopes someone would speak up, stand up to this girl they had so clearly offended.

"W-Wait a minute, what happened to that justice stuff? Huh? W-We're just trying to bring that back to Lasta-"

"I don't care about that anymore! Flat is justice!" The group swallowed in unison with this declaration of Nisa's. This girl meant business. "You have proven yourselves to be pure evil! Now prepare yourselves for your punishment, villains! Why aren't you kneeling yet?! Do I need to get a whip?!"

Nervous, fearing for his life and the life of his friends, a lone NPC raised his hand. His faceless comrades shook their heads furiously, hoping he would stop his foolishness and stand down, yet rather than do the sensible thing and lower his hand, instead he spoke up! And what did he say, but-

"I-If you want, I-I'm actually into that kind of thi-"

The ground shook as the man was flung across the alley.

"NO WHIPS!"

The group realized in that moment they didn't stand a chance alone against this monster they had unknowingly summoned from the depths of hell itself. Though he had fallen, their comrade's sacrifice would not be in vain! The only way they would stop this she-devil... would be if they stood together, united as one, and defeated her as a group!

"Get her!" The NPC Nisa had kicked earlier led the charge, raising his fists and preparing to meet his legendary blacksmith ancestors should he fall this day.

"She can't get all of us at once!" The bold buffoon that had slapped Nisa's back was quick to add his own support to the charge, and with his cry, two more men followed after him. "Let's finish this! My girlfriend is waiting at home for me!

"Sorry about this, but I can't abandon my friends!" The NPC that had been the one to suspect Nisa was actually a woman all along, whose profile could have passed for a harem protagonist's, followed his friends into battle. "Tsundere-chan, Waifu-chan, Bromance-kun, lend me your strength!"

Their strength united, their death flags held up like badges of honor, their faces each as lacking in details as the last, it was no surprise how the back alley smackdown was to play out with an enraged playable character in their midst.

One after the other, NPCs fell, battered and bruised, onto the torn remains of the very promotional materials they had been destroying to begin with.

"And now you're littering?!"

"Ho-Hold on, how are we litter-"

"Your bodies! Are dirtying! The streets! Have- you- no- _**shame?!**_ "

With a chorus of slapstick sound effects accompanying every act of completely justified violence she delivered to these hooligans, Nisa could say for sure that she had, without a doubt, cleaned up the trash on this day. Even as the men around her screamed, all with their exact same generic NPC voice, Nisa could only find herself with a growing sense of accomplishment alongside her completely justified, under the top anger.

This was what it meant to be a hero.

Once she was finished letting these villains taste justice firsthand, she would deliver them to the proper authorities, then return here to clean up the mess they had left behind. Truly, this was how a hero should act! If only these poor souls hadn't strayed from the path to glorious-

"Hold it right there, evildoer! You'd better let those poor people go, or else!"

Dropping the trembling bundle of terrified NPC she was clutching by its neck in an instant, Nisa spun around.

What greeted her was something that almost instantly set off her ang-err, her justice off again. Two somethings, to be precise. Two somethings that were impossibly large and not nearly restrained enough.

Not even bothering to check to see whether or not Nisa knew the owner of these mystical weapons, thanks to this timing, Nisa found herself glaring furiously at them. Seeing a chance, a chance like no other, a chance that might not come ever again, the NPC she had been about to knock out grabbed the first thing he could and slowly began inching into a position where he could strike out and take revenge.

Whether this girl was sympathetic to that goddess or just a bully, he would avenge his brothers!

"Now now, my face is up here!" The sweet voice that had interrupted her heroic actions added a giggle. Nisa scoffed at the intruder's bubbling, sweet tone. Put those things your chest away then, if that was the way you were going to go about things! "You know, it's not nice to pick on people who can't fight back. Why don't you play with me instead?"

"Oh, I'll play alright!"

Elbowing the not-as-hidden-as-he-thought NPC as hard as she could right in his face, Nisa grabbed the item he had picked up as he collapsed onto the ground.

"That wasn't very nice of you!" The busty beauty began her descent, but as she got closer, it became apparent that something was amiss with this situation. "... Wait, Nisa? Is that you? Why are _you_ -"

Stomping her foot, her wish for True Justice to be understood reigning supreme over all else, Nisa flung the item as hard as she could at her opponent-

"Uwah! That tickles!"

\- only for the airborne cement block to bounce harmlessly right off of Marvelous AQL's chest and land a few feet away.

"AAAH! DON'T ACT EVEN CUTER AFTER THAT CONVENIENTLY TIMED ENTRANCE! THAT'S NOT FAIR!"

* * *

"Oh, I see now! These naughty boys were tearing down all of these, huh? I should have gone after them instead of sticking around with you... But because of me, they got away." Marvelous bowed deeply. Her personal jiggle physics made sure to respond in kind to the motion. "I'm sorry for misunderstanding you, Nisa. I should have known you would never do something like attack people without a good reason."

Nisa glanced away.

She was pretty sure she was one more jiggle from attacking Marvy for real, but considering the ninja girl was probably the second closest thing to a real hero in Gamindustri after her own heroic self, she held her tongue for the time being.

"Ye-Yeah, well, that just goes to show you still need training!" Nisa finally replied. She took the opportunity as a chance to begin the second part of this good deed — cleaning up the mess those miscreants had made. And to think, they had wanted her to take part? She supposed it was a good thing it had been her to accept that quest instead of someone else. "You may be a good ninja, but you've always got to be able to keep an eye out for those in need and those doing wrong, and never get them confused."

"It must be a good thing I ended up with you after all, then!" Marvy replied, seemingly undeterred by Nisa's insult to her heroism. "I'll study you very, very carefully while we put all of this back in order."

The blue haired heroine paused in her work to process this. Such a... truly... positive response...! How commendable!

With a smile spread across her lips, Nisa shook her head, rubbing her finger under her nose as she fought back the urge to put her hands on her hips and laugh.

"That's the kind of thing I like to hear! Very well! Together, we'll have everything back where it should be in no time!"

"Right!"


	8. Chapter 8: Deviants at Dinnertime

"You know, even if you were in the right after all, you were still _pretty_ rough on those people..."

After spending the rest of the evening cleaning up the mess those troublemakers had left for them, Marvelous had offered to make up for her misunderstanding by treating Nisa to dinner. Naturally, Nisa had no reason to refuse — so long as there were no melons on the menu — and they had set off to relax after a job well done. Everything had been looking great for them, right up until...

"I really don't want to hear that from the one who cut all their clothes up after we found them at it _again_!" The heroine of justice shuddered as, against her will, the vivid memories of the bouncing ninja slashing through the crowd of vengeful hooligans that they had found on their way to the restaurant returned to her once more. Grabbing the glass of water before her, Nisa to a long drink of it in an attempt to wash away the pain. "Why... Why would someone have a tattoo of a CPU's face _there_...? Isn't that sacrilegious...?!"

"I-I'm sure, in their own way, they're sending Noire a whooole lot of shares..." Marvy didn't seem as confident as she was trying to, but even she had cried out in surprise when that particular bit of skin had revealed itself while she had been slashing through the group in an attempt to get them to stop their shameful shenanigans. "At least it was just her face..."

For a moment, the busty ninja's companion didn't understand the comment. As it dawned on her just what was being implied, Nisa's eyes widened in horror.

"No... No one would do something like _that_... Not to their own body..." Nisa shook her head. Denial was the hero one called on in moments such as these. Justice and evil was one thing, but this was just taking a turn for the _perverse_. She could _guarantee_ that even the foulest, non-tooth-brushiest demons would be just as disturbed by this discussion. ... Well, fine, _most_ of them would be, but... Nisa shuddered once more, deciding not to let those thoughts continue. "But... why...?"

Rather than offer an answer, Marvelous was silent, seemingly content to munch on her oversized roll as Nisa had learned upon there arrival she was apparently very prone to.

"It wasn't with one of the goddesses, but I saw it once." After swallowing her food, Marvy took on a thoughtful expression and turned to the girl next to her — and Nisa really wished that was not the case right now, given this topic. "She was from a different school, so I've only met her a few times. got a tattoo of another girl on her, well..."

After glancing around the restaurant to make sure no one was listening, Marvelous sat up slightly in her seat and patted her own rump for an explanation.

"It was so detailed too. You could see everthing, her eyes, her hair, from her head all the way to her..." Marvy realized Nisa was giving her the strangest look, and that perhaps she needed to explain something else entirely. "Oh, don't worry, it was her sister, so I'm sure it was okay. She seemed like she wanted her to get mad, so..."

Apparently this was actually _not_ the kind of information Nisa had been looking for. Not at all.

"Why were you looking at someone's behind so much you could make out that kind of detail?"

The picture of innocence, with a token bounce to accompany the movement, Marvy tilted her head.

"Now now, Nisa, I don't want to hear that from someone who seems to enjoy talking about breasts so much more than she pretends she does." Marvy playfully returned Nisa's early comment right back at her, much to the heroine's chagrin.

"That isn't what I meant! Don't you turn to the dark side on me now!" Scowling, Nisa returned to her food, deciding that this conversation was over.

Marvy, however, just smiled.

She didn't mind if Nisa thought her a little pervy. She was sorry to disappoint her fellow heroine, but she supposed the fact she was alright living with that misunderstanding rather than correcting it spoke for itself. Really, she just admired the other girl's sense of justice, even knowing as out there and out of control as it could be at times. She liked to think she was similar — which was why she'd rather be misunderstood.

Because knowing Nisa's nature didn't stop her from seeing Nisa's outfit and instinctively thinking about how many weapons and scrolls and talismans she could have tucked away in that jumpsuit of hers she always kept oh so conveniently unzipped for oh so convenient access at a moment's notice.

Out of habit, Marvelous' hand was drawn to her swords, kept at her side as they always were.

"Huh? Something wrong?" Worried that danger was afoot... or something like that, Nisa let her moodiness brought on over Marvy's comment fade at the sight of the shinobi reaching for her weapon. For her to do that during a meal, it must be pretty serious, right? "One of those guys didn't walk in here just now, did they? I wanted to ask them just why they were doing that, and you know, now that I think about it, something sounded a little-"

The ninja shook her head, waving her free hand to signal Nisa to return to her meal.

"No, no, I can't say that anything is wrong. Don't mind me. I'm very happy to see how alert you are, though!" Even as she said this, Marvy's grip tightened on the hilt, and a strange sense of... peace... perhaps... washed over her as she watched Nisa eat. She knew Nisa would never do anything underhanded like that — or she'd have a reason for it so heroic, it wouldn't be underhanded at all.

And so she smiled.

* * *

With everything shut down for the evening, Uni supposed she could tell herself that she had done good today. She had gotten more than her share done now, save for that One Thing She Was Avoiding Doing, that One Thing That Involved That One Person She Was Avoiding Seeing, but she could congratulate herself in that she had not resorted to stalking anyone. Yet.

Ah, but who knew what sort of possibilities tomorrow would bring?

"Hopefully... not stalking." Uni muttered to herself as she withdrew a plate of food from the microwave. A late dinner was better than no dinner at all, and she couldn't let herself go without nutrition if she wanted to stay fully charged. "Maybe I should ask someone who's done it some advice... Sis still has RED's number, doesn't she? Hold on, maybe _I_ should now, since- Did the story get retconned too once that came out...? Aaah, just- Just forget it! I can call her either..."

Uni stopped.

"Wait, I didn't say I was actually going to do it, so why would I need to call her in the first..." The black haired girl let out a sigh of defeat. This wasn't getting her anywhere. "Oh, just... Never mind..."

That was enough of this train of thought for the night. She'd figure this all out tomorrow. Noire might be able to give her advice. No, more importantly, Noire would be able to tell her about Nepgear! Noire... she might just be a really helpful ally for her, now that Uni thought about it... Not that Uni had ever thought about her amazing sister as anything else, of course. Noire was incredible like that — Uni knew she had a long way to go before she'd ever really be comparable.

The CPU Candidate sighed at the thought. Would Noire have so much trouble with something like this...? Despite her sister's encouragement earlier that day, if it could be called that, Uni wasn't as confident right now.

Was that just her own personality getting in the way of appreciating herself, though, or was there something there that needed to be corrected that wasn't being pointed out to her?

The young goddess mulled over her thoughts as she headed out of the kitchen and to the dinner table. The Unita's popularity was wavering more and more, and maybe now after Noire and Neptune's announcement, some expected it to just drop dead at any moment, to either make way for what came next or to just fade away... But that wasn't what was happening. Not on Uni's watch.

"Well, I'll have to show them. I made my decision to support Noire, so there's no use moaning about it now." Uni reminded herself as she sat down in her usual seat, placing her plate gently in front of her. Just the sound of those tough-love words coming from her mouth made her feel a little better. That decision, those feelings that had risen up in her when Noire had embraced her, she could be grounded by those things and focus on that — and use it all to work even harder tomorrow! Letting out a little yawn, the girl reached for her fork and nodded to herself. "I'll just have to suck it up."

Uni was Uni. Uni would do what Uni would do to be the best Uni could be. Like no Uni ever was. To catch up to Noire was her real test, to train with Noire was her cause. She would travel, across the land. Stalking far and wide. Each pair of Nepgear's pa...

"I'm hooooo~oooome!"

Jumping nearly a foot into the air, Uni looked around frantically. Had she been falling asleep? Had she fallen asleep all the way? When had that happened? When had she eaten her food, for that matter? Had she actually really even eaten it? How much time had passed? Was it morning already?

"Oh, hiya!"

Uni stared incredulously as, out of nowhere and without any kind of warning, Neptune plunked down in the chair across from her. Uni had already been having a late dinner as it was, so this was a fairly surprising turn of events for her — to say nothing of the fact that it seemed like she had dozed off in the middle of motivating herself.

"Eating late too, huh? That's no good on your tummy, you know, you gotta watch out for that! So, like..." Neptune gave the CPU Candidate before a brief nod and a grin once she settled into her seat. "'Sup, Uni?"

Still somewhere between being baffled that she'd dozed off and reeling from Neptune's sudden and unexpected appearance, the best Uni could do was shrug in response to the question for now. It seemed to work well enough.

Apparently Uni's half-hearted shrug was all the greeting Neptune deemed necessary for the moment, because she promptly looked away from the girl to start digging into her food. Uni could only watch in awe as it seemed to just... vanish right before her very eyes.

Was this really okay for a CPU to act this way...? Or... was it _because_ she was a CPU, it was okay for her...? Noire had never eaten like that in front of her. Did that mean Noire was looking out for her, or that she did it in private? If Noire did it in like that in private... No, no, Uni wouldn't want to know. If Noire did it like that in private, it wasn't Uni's business.

"You want some? You're staring pretty hard over there." Neptune pulled Uni out of her trance by holding out her fork to her. It was a perfectly innocent act, certainly, and if it had been Nepgear doing it, well, Uni was so sleepy she might have bitten the fork, the entire fork, and then the other girl's whole hand off while she was at it, but for Neptune...

"Hah? No, oh, I'm sorry, I just-" Uni felt her face burning hot with shame. In front of a CPU. In front of a CPU! How _could_ she? Even if it was Neptune, just...

"'Kay!" Shrugging, Neptune went back to her meal, seeming to not pay any mind to the antics of the girl before her now that she had confirmed Uni wasn't interested in having any of Neptune's food. "Man, I just wanna kick back in the bath tonight... You guys seriously musta splurged on that tub. It's sooo goooood... I want to have one of those every day..."

While above the table, Uni was doing her best to look collected, to nod when appropriate, beneath the table, the CPU Candidate was squeezing her napkin in her lap so hard the poor thing would probably fall in love with Plutia at first sight if it could think for itself. She couldn't believe she'd been staring! What was _wrong_ with her?

Neptune, unaware of how the girl across from her was feeling, continued on about the amazing bath now that it was within her reach once more. She should get Noire in there with her one of these days too... Uni and Kei would have to be out of the Basilicom when she went for it, though... Or maybe they could do it during the day? No no no, they were too busy for something bold like that — Neptune was at least — but who knew what the future held in store for them? It was all in reach yet! As long as she kept telling herself that, it would definitely become true!

"Oh yeah, I picked up some new bubble bath stuff on my way back," Neptune remarked suddenly, her thoughts of the magical bath reminding her of her over-indulgence. Grinning sheepishly, she ran a hand through her hair and looked away. "I mighta used all of your guys' up, but what I got should be good! You'll feel great next time you take a bath, don't you worry your head off about that, no ma'am."

Neptune was sad to find that she did not get much of a response even from this. It seemed as though Uni was either feeling too shy or too stubborn to want to take part in this conversation about getting all wet and soapy. Were Neptune's bathing habits something to be embarrassed about? Or was she shocked to hear that Neptune actually bathed at all? Hey, she wasn't Vert! And even Vert bathed! How else did people think she was able to generate those roses and lilies at will, huh?

Well, if Uni wanted to have the wrong idea, harumph! That was fine. It was getting kinda late, last she checked, and Neptune didn't want to get into the bath "tomorrow" after all. She could correct these horrible misconceptions about her amazing hygiene that in no way had been influenced by an adorable little sister's better habits at any point in time later!

Come to think of it, what time _was_ it...?

"Nepu! Is that clock right?! Look at how late it is... Hey, hey, wanna take a bath with Big Sis Nep-Nep, Uni? You can work up your peeping skills for when we get Nepgear over here to try out that suuuuuper awesome bath all togeth..."

With a **thunk** , Uni's head finally fell onto the table as the girl lost her battle with the sleep demon once again. It was a good thing Neptune had come home before she'd finally conked out completely so someone could shove some of those good, cloth napkins Noire insisted they keep out at all times under to cushion the fall somewhat. It seemed to be enough to keep her sleep undisturbed- Or maybe she was just really tired.

She didn't even notice the bright white light that filled the room a moment after she fell.

"What a shame. It looks like I'll have to take a rain check on that 'sisterly bonding' bath scene then."

Purple Heart took great care to be gentle as she lifted Uni up. She supposed these past few months, if nothing else, had helped her learn quite a lot when it came to restraint. On more than one occasion, she'd just wanted to scream and burn everything to the ground — yet here she was, instead cradling her wife's little sister in her arms like a newborn puppy. Who could have seen that coming?

"I'm sure that even when she's not here, your older sister must seem like she can shine more vibrantly than anything to you. I'm blinded by her myself sometimes, you know... even I perhaps see her in a different light."

The goddess paused for a moment. Something akin to guilt briefly flashed across her face, but it was gone as soon as it had come.

"But I know that you've been working hard as well, haven't you?" the goddess asked the sleeping girl softly. She brushed some stray strands of hair out of the girl's face as she floated into the air, already slowly moving in the direction of the Candidate's bedroom. "Hold on, Uni. Let's get you to bed."

"Okay, sis."

Taken by surprise, Purple Heart froze in mid-air. Her gaze returned to the bundle in her arms, but to her relief, the girl was still fast asleep. She supposed that was to be expected, all things considered. That was how this sort of event generally went, after all.

... Even so...

Her dinner completely forgotten, the goddess laid Uni down to sleep before finally retreating to the bath she had been longing for all day.

It seemed she didn't need that rain check on her sisterly bonding scene after all.


	9. Chapter 9: Got Regret?

"I think I'm in the mood for..."

Tap tap tap. Pause. Tap. Tap tap tap tap tap tap _taptaptaptaptaptaptap_. Tap _**tap!**_

Pause.

Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap. Tap. Pause.

"What about you...?"

Tap tap tap tap. Pause.

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap...

"Iffy?"

Somewhere in the distance, far beyond the mystical realm contained in the land of cell phones, a voice sang out. Who was it calling? Who was "Iffy"? Did it have something to do with that mysterious sensation the realm's mistress felt on her shoulder? It was as though a spell had been cast, forcing an increase of gravity on that very specific-

"Iffy, I'm still hot all over from the bath I took with Nepgear. Could you cool me off?"

Tap tap... tap?

The message boards she had been engrossing herself in completely forgotten, IF slowly raised her head, eyes wide as game discs, to stare at her girlfriend in shock. Surely, with them still having yet to share a kiss, Compa wasn't already having sensual baths with Nepgear in her absence and coming to IF to help her take care of things after... Was she...?! Where had their relationship gone so astray? Was it because she had been so worried about the goddesses lately that-

"Close your mouth or bugs will fly in," Compa chided sweetly, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary. IF could only nod dumbly and force her mouth shut, still unsure what she should make of this recent turn of events. "You know, I wish you would tell me what's been bothering you... I think even Ge-Ge noticed, Iffy. Please remember you can talk to me."

"R.. Right." Slipping her phone into her pocket, IF slumped in her seat. Mental images and barely covered enough CGs were starting to form in her mind's eye, and IF got the feeling they might make conversation a bit difficult.

"Now, let's talk about dessert! If you're okay with pudding, I've still got leftovers from the batch I took to Nepgear. Would those be good?"

A-ha. Conversation would be fine after all.

"Yeah... Sure, that sounds nice." As soon as Compa turned away to get things prepared, IF dropped her head onto the table, a wave of tiredness coming over her. So she had been so caught up in her frantic posting and reading, she had warped Compa's words that badly, huh?

IF didn't know what to think. On the bright side, she didn't have to worry about keeping a potentially dangerous secret anymore, because all of Gamindustri was now aware of Neptune's crazy idea for the future of Planeptune and Lastation.

The Nepstation was going to become a reality in the near future, and there was nothing she or any of the other goddesses could do about it now. It didn't even seem to have taken off as quickly as IF had thought it would, so surely, the other goddesses would be able to come up with something in the meantime and all of IF's concerns would have been for naught, right? The balance would be restored and yada yada, the end.

If only it had been that simple.

Maybe it was time to speak up about it. At the very least, the petty side of her reminded her, Compa would never call her an ignorant, bridge dwelling, mouth breathing troll if she disagreed with her about something.

"Hey, Compa? Have you ever done one thing, only to find out later you should have done something like the comlete opposite all along?" IF asked as her girlfriend's presence came near once more. The sounds of plates being placed on the table was her only response at first, but maybe that was to be expected — IF would like to think Compa had never been in this sort of situation before. "Like, for example... Where you didn't say anything about something you were worried about, and then it turned out you wish you had afterwards?"

IF didn't expect an answer, really. Not one where Compa said yes anyway. Now that she had been fully drawn out of her phone stupor, IF realized that she was just looking for comfort, and she didn't need to drag Compa into this for that — they could have a real talk about this later, when she wasn't wanting to have it just for herself. That all too human part of her, fed up with trying, was just looking for an excuse to vent and be cuddled and coddled by Compa. That was all.

After so much internet fighting, so much worrying, she was starting to feel like she had been worrying for nothing with how insignificant she was feeling. No matter how close to the goddesses she was, she could only give so much faith herself, and she certainly couldn't control others. She was too small. Maybe if she had done something sooner, sure, but...

"I... have."

But... but nothing! Hold on, what had that wonderful mass of cotton candy sugar and sweetness across the table just said?

IF blinked. She got the sneaking suspicion she might have just stepped on a land mine.

Sitting upright, IF wasn't quite sure what she should do. Their plates of pudding were in front of them. They _should_ have been starting a pleasant dessert, if not for the topic she had just brought up. Instead, Compa was shifting awkwardly under IF's confused gaze. Her lips were held together in a thin line, her hands pressed unusually hard to her lap, and she was looking down, down, down... down.

A strange sense of nostalgia began to bubble up in her stomach. IF rarely saw Compa make faces like this. Almost never. If she were to name the instances that came to mind off the top of her head, then there had been when Neptune and Nepgear's situation had gotten bad, and...

"I really wanted to tell Nep-Nep to let Ge-Ge stay behind. Of course, I wanted to make Nep-Nep stay too, but I knew I couldn't do that... Still... From the bottom of my heart, all the way down to the very, very, very bottomest of it, I wanted to make Nep-Nep change her mind at least about Ge-Ge."

This was... it was a lot for IF to take in so suddenly. It wasn't as though IF hadn't had her own share of feelings about that event. Not at all. She'd felt miserable about Nep-Nep for so long after Neptune had already come back that even after Neptune herself had approached her about it, she'd still felt pangs of guilt for quite a while. Had Compa ever spoken up about this to anyone before...?

Whether she had or not, IF felt like- She _hoped_ she could relate. Regardless, she knew this wasn't something Compa should be holding onto, and with that in mind, she knew she had to approach this as the nurse's girlfriend first and foremost.

"Wait..." And so IF hesitated. Just with that one word from her, Compa was already tensing up. This was... How was she supposed to deal with this? With a weight descending into the pit of her stomach, IF took a deep breath and offered her girlfriend a reassuring smile. "Compa, that... Everything's fine now, you know that, right? That's all in the past. You don't have to worry about that any..."

Compa looked anything but reassured. Her hands were still pressed into her lap. IF couldn't see them, but if she had to guess, from the brief movement she could see of Compa's shoulders, Compa had probably just tightened her grip on whatever she was holding onto.

"I'll get us some milk." Compa announced suddenly, forcing a smile onto her face where that line had been tightly drawn just a moment prior. It hurt. To see that kind of expression on Compa- IF didn't know what to make of it. As though she was unable to force herself to move her arms to the table, she was instead forcing her legs to take her away — or maybe she didn't have to force that much at all. "Would you like some, Iffy?"

IF's chair screeched as she stood up. She reached out for her girlfriend's hand. She would pull Compa back and fix this right now and-

She only grabbed air. Had she missed? No, that couldn't be. Compa had just avoided her.

"Compa, hold on a second- Compa!" IF wasn't sure whether she should be more concerned or frustrated or just confused.

If this really was about Nepgear getting trapped in the Gamindustri Graveyeard, then Compa had to have been holding onto that for years... But even so... Everything _had_ worked out! It had! That had absolutely _nothing_ to do with what had happened to Nepgear and Neptune later! Surely, Compa wasn't putting those things together, was she?

"It's okay, Iffy." Compa shook her head. She smiled the kind of smile you never wanted to see a loved one wear on their face. Did she not want IF to follow her? Or did she think IF would just make it worse if she did? "I'm sorry I can't help you. I'm not gonna run off or anything, I don't have a big enough role in the story for something dramatic like that, it would be silly. I just want to go get some milk. That's all. I promise."

IF inhaled. She withdrew her arm, which had still been hanging in the air somewhat, and nodded. She would show Compa she trusted her. If Compa took longer than it took to get some milk, she would do something then, but only then. For now... For now she could wait a little while.

"Be back in a sec!" As soon as it looked like IF was going to be a good girl, Compa seemed to have her composure back, for she was off to the fridge not a moment after.

* * *

 _"Has it already been this long...?"_

 _Her lips trembled as she pushed her calendar face down onto her desk._

 _Two years._

 _It had been two years since the goddesses had gone off to the Gamindustri Graveyard._

 _No, that wasn't quite right. The goddesses and one little sister._

 _One little sister eager to help. One little sister that barely even knew the other goddesses, that had never even met the other little sisters that had notably **not** gone along to this battle... yet she was off to battle with them anyway._

 _Why hadn't she said anything? Why, oh why, hadn't she just opened her mouth up and said something...?_

 _Pressing her back to the wall, she slid down to the floor and curled up into a ball._

 _She could tell Histoire had been hesitant. She had been worried to pieces about whether or not Ge-Ge would be able to keep up with Nep-Nep._

 _She pulled her knees closer, hugging them tight. Her long hair, four months overdue for a cut, spilled over as her body began to shake._

 _She missed them so much._

 _These past two years had been so sad. So lonely. So painful. Gamindustri was changing. It was becoming a place Compa didn't like at all. More and more people were losing faith in their goddesses — even though doing so, Compa knew in her heart, was just going to make it all the harder for them to escape._

 _People were starting to say horrible things about them. Those people she loved so much. People were starting to forget them. Those people she treasured so dearly._

 _She still remembered. No matter how long it took, no matter how much time would come to separate them... No matter how clumsy she was, no matter how weak she was, she wouldn't forget them._

 _And someday... No matter how much was lost in the time between, someday, she hoped..._

 _She hoped._

* * *

The nurse practiced some breathing exercises as she poured herself and Iffy their milk. In and out, deep and calming. Relax. Forget. Don't worry. It _was_ in the past.

Now let's put it back there and have some yummy pudding with the girl she loved. That would be easy, wouldn't it?

It was okay that Iffy didn't understand. Compa was glad she didn't. Maybe it was because Iffy engrossed herself with the never aging goddesses and their business so much more — or because Compa worked with the sick and the mortal so much more — that it seemed so clear to Compa. Yet Iffy apparently just couldn't see something that seemed so plain and... simple. Maybe Iffy _did_ understand, and was just too engrossed in the present, a present silly old Compa knew all too well she was not a part of, not sharp enough or strong enough to be part of anymore, to let it hold her back.

Certainly, there was the normal regrets Compa expected. If Ge-Ge had stayed behind... Not only would she not have had to suffer so, but who knows? Maybe the other goddesses could have been freed sooner — maybe ASIC itself could have been defeated sooner too, before they gained all that power.

But the simple truth was that there was no getting those three years back. Those were parts of their lives that had been taken by ASIC, and Compa couldn't help but just...

She shook her head and poured another glass. No no, Compa, that was no good at all.

She didn't constantly mull over it or anything like that. Compa wasn't that type of girl — Iffy had taken her by surprise was all, asking a question like that without warning. She just... needed a minute to collect her thoughts. Put that disc back in its case and hide it away with those three years. They weren't important. She didn't need any of that. It was okay for people to just put chunks of their lives into a box and forget about them. Normal, even.

"Ah."

Compa tilted her head, surprised by what she saw on the counter. Five glasses of milk were looking back at her, rather than the two she had thought she had poured. What a silly mistake she had made. Oopsie...

"Now what am I to do with this? I don't want the poor cow that gave you up to be mad at me..." Placing a hand to her cheek, Compa sighed. She didn't want to just waste this extra milk she had poured, but she wasn't thirsty enough to down all the extra before she returned to Iffy. And Iffy would probably begin to worry about her if she took any longer. "Oh dear... Should I leave it here and come back for it? Or maybe I could..."

Before Compa could come to a decision, one was made for her. A hand reached out from behind her to grab one of the glasses of milk ("Wah!") and before Compa could so much as ask whether or not the intruder got milk and wink in the general direction of the camera, Iffy had downed two glasses of the stuff and was on the way to her third.

"W-Wait, Iffy, you don't have to-" the nurse started, but her pleas went ignored as Iffy held up a hand to silence Compa as she finished the third unnecessary glass of milk. Compa puffed her cheeks out in light annoyance as she watched her girlfriend place the three finished glasses in the sink. "Iffy... You might get sick after that, you know."

IF smiled.

"In that case, I think I earned it, don't you?" she told Compa calmly, nonchalantly wiping away a milk mustache with the back of her sleeve as she set down the glass she had just emptied of milk. "I came whining to you like a little kid and was inconsiderate when you were sincere. And after you've been worrying about what I've been thinking about all this time no less to boot! Just call it my just desserts."

"But..." Compa pursed her lips, her hands falling in front of her. She appreciated the thought, but if that was how Iffy felt about it, could it be that...? "Does that mean you don't want your real dessert anymore?"

"Wha- No, I was just-" IF had to restrain a laugh. That was her adorable girlfriend alright. "No, I always have room for your pudding, Compa. Not as much room as Nep does, but more than enough for this. Don't worry."

Compa opened her mouth to respond, but realized she wasn't quite sure yet what she wanted her response to be. Hesitating, she closed her mouth again as her gaze briefly faltered from IF.

The brunette just saw this as an opportunity to return to what had gotten them to leave the table.

"Listen, Compa..." Taking a step forward, IF reached out to brush some stray strands of hair from Compa's face, leaving her hand to rest on her girlfriend's cheek. "I know I'm not one to say anything right now, but do you want to talk about it? I may not get what's been bothering you now, but I'll stay up for as long as it takes if you want to talk until I do."

* * *

 _It was time. They had everything they needed. They were going to go to the Graveyard and they were going to save the goddesses — and Ge-Ge too. All the bad, icky feelings of these past three years would never be able to be erased, and while they would never get that time back, at least once the CPUs came back, their futures could start to finally be healthy again with their help._

 _So why was her traveling companion and longtime friend blocking the door?"_

 _"Did I forget something? Did you...? What is it, Iffy?"_

 _"No, it's not anything like that, Compa... There's just... Something."_

 _"Then... Oh no, I told you, I'm going, and that's final! I'm not going to let you sneak off without me, Missy!"_

 _"I know, I know, I won't try to convince you anymore... Just- Hold on. Okay?"_

 _Without any warning, there was a glint — no, a flash of light against metal. Compa gasped. She saw blades in Iffy's hands. Could it be one of those scenes Nep-Nep used to talk to her about, where Iffy hurt her before she left so Compa didn't have to go and risk herself...?_

 _"Iffy, stop, what are you-"_

 _Hair slowly fell to the ground in a pink rain. A face hidden behind months of ignoring a trip to the barber soon began to reveal itself to the world once again._

 _"There we go. We're going to meet Nep and Gear, Compa. You want to look your best, don't you?"_

 _Compa was in awe. She stood still, transfixed, as she took in what had just happened, what she had just heard._

 _"Oh... That's right."_

 _Stepping back, IF smiled at her and held up a mirror._

 _As Compa looked at herself again for what seemed like the first time in three years, it finally sunk in._

 _They were finally going to meet again._

 _"You look great, by the way. I'm going to have to knock some sense into Nep for denying the world this sight for so long."_

 _Compa could hardly blink back her tears as she leapt into IF's arms to thank her._

 _With so much going on, she hadn't been in a state of mind to realize it at the time, but eventually, looking back... Compa was sure that that was the moment she knew she had loved IF. Ever since that day they set off to save the goddesses together._

 _No matter what, even if she didn't know it herself, Iffy would always be there for her._

* * *

Compa smiled.

"No can do, Iffy," she informed the other young woman matter-of-factly, holding up a finger to bop IF gently on the nose.

IF blinked in surprise, her nose twitching as Compa's finger suddenly attacked it.

"Huh? Seriously?" the Leanbox native laughed weakly, leaning back slightly. Her eyes didn't leave Compa's as she sighed in defeat. "You know, you sure know how to shoot someone down... Not that I don't think I don't deserve it, but with a smile like that? My heart just about skipped three beats there, Compa."

Giggling, Compa shook her head. Iffy could be so silly sometimes!

"It's not that! I'm happy to talk to you about anything, Iffy, it's just-" Compa opened up her arms to attach herself to IF, something that earned her a surprised yelp in response. Compa paid it no mind, however, a vibrant smile on her face as she buried herself in IF's chest and squeezed her tight. "I would feel even worse if I kept you from sleeping! It's very important to get a good night's rest!"

"Oh, is _that_ what it is..."

"It is!"

IF had to fight back her smile. Aaah, Compa, how could one person be so cute?!

"Alright then, so we don't interrupt anybody's sleep, tell you what. How about you and I go out tomorrow? No worries, no quests, no working, just you and me out on the town? I saw a flyer for something interesting looking going on in the park when I was on the way back from the Guild today, so..." Shyly scratching her cheek, the brunette gave her girlfriend a hopeful look. Her question was written all over her face before she had the chance to even ask it. "You wanna?"

As she gave her Iffy a gleeful nod, Compa felt those feelings from earlier fading away once more, already being replaced by anticipation for tomorrow, and happiness.

Compa had the distinct feeling she would be resting very well tonight.

She wasn't wrong.


	10. Chapter 10: Closer Than They Think

Was it already that time?

She checked the clocks. Much to her dismay, it appeared as though it was getting to be close to bed time. Letting out a groan, she turned away from them to return to her computer. She had just finished sending her two letters — one to Uni and one to Vert — and now there was nothing else for her to do... she would have liked for there to be some excuse, some reason to stay up longer, but she couldn't find any.

For just a moment, the CPU Candidate considered attempting to plow through some of Falcom's books again. She could make a grab for her favorites, and then throw the night away, just letting herself get absorbed into the amazing, wonderful stories of her former traveling companion... but she had read the novels so many times over that now it was starting to feel like she had gone on those adventures herself rather than her friend.

The purple haired girl sighed.

"I suppose I really am out of options then."

"Excuses" was probably a more accurate word for how Nepgear felt about it than "options" ever would be.

This might just be the least favorite part of the day for Nepgear. Really, she was being generous, saying "might" about it. It was.

Today hadn't been very eventful. Visits were minimal. Noire had popped in a few times. She told Nepgear tomorrow was going to be better than today had been. Compa had stopped by with some treats and done the same, if only for a little. Nepgear appreciated the length of these visits staying brief, because she would have had trouble not pointing out a building exploding tomorrow — just because it would be an emergency that would _require_ her attention — would be something that could make the next day better.

What a terrible thought.

What a truly horrible, reprehensible thought.

Nepgear pulled up her legs to her chest and hugged them close.

"You know... I don't think I'll be able to like myself anymore if this goes on for much longer," she whispered into the night.

Did that mean, somewhere in there, she still liked herself?

She hoped so.

She really hoped so.

She knew, at least, she wanted to _be_ liked.

She wanted attention. She had always wanted that. From Neptune, from the CPUs, from her friends, from those in the other dimension, even from Histoire and the other Oracles- Now, more than ever, she knew that she needed it. So badly. Was it childish of her? Was some newfound pride preventing her from just asking for it? Or was she simply a coward?

Maybe it just wouldn't feel as real if she asked for it.

Whatever the reason, it didn't stop her from wanting.

She wanted to be held. She wanted her hair to be stroked. She wanted a hug. Oh, she wanted a hug so much. She wanted to be smothered in a hug and just pretend nothing had changed and everything was the same as it had always been. She wanted to be hidden away from Planeptune and Lastation and the rest of Gamindustri and just close her eyes and...

Well... That wasn't really possible, was it?

But other things were.

She knew in her heart she would need to grow up and accept this reality sooner or later.

She also knew that she might just not be able to without the people there beside her that she needed. How she needed them. As much as she needed.

How possible _was_ that, really?

What would it take to make her feel okay again...?

She wanted someone to tell her it would be okay.

She wanted someone to lie to her when she wanted to be lied to.

She wanted someone to tell her the truth when she wanted honesty.

Please. Let her sleep easy. Make her proud of herself again. Give her the power to hold her head up with pride again. Take away all of these bad feelings. Just...

Before she knew it, Nepgear found tears filling her eyes, stubbornly refusing to fall. She clenched her teeth, and her fists soon after. She hadn't asked for this, you know? It wasn't like this had to happen to her- to any of them!

If only... If only _she_ had been the CP-

Her heart froze over. Her eyes widened in horror.

She wouldn't let herself think that. She wouldn't _dare_ think such a horrible thing. Such a miserable, ungrateful, shameful thing.

Then and there, she put those thoughts out of her mind. No matter what happened in the future, if she so much as continued that thought for one more letter, she would never be able to look her sister in the eye again — not for the rest of her life. She had to stuff the disc that was that thought immediately back into its case, hide it in a shelf among so many she would never find it again, and then... Then burn that shelf to the ground. She knew if she did any less that she would become a person she would never be able to forgive until the day she died.

And so she did just that. She did it all.

"Right... Right... What did I do today again..." Deep breaths. Deep breaths. The letters. The ones she finished and sent. That was right. Maybe this time, maybe, just maybe, she would get a reply. "It would be so wonderful if they both came... Yes, it would be a dream come true if I could see both of them tomorrow."

Her letters long since sent to two of the people she most wanted attention from (after Neptune), full of quiet pleas she wished she could scream at the top of her lungs, Nepgear had nothing more to tie to her computer — and so she let herself fall. She fell back into her chair, then she fell out of it, and then she fell onto the blankets on her floor.

At least if she curled up in them, she could pretend someone was holding her for a little while.

She felt so drained.

"But... At least I can say I accomplished _something_ today."

She spoke to no one in particular as she pulled herself onto her bed, her tone in a place between bitter and hopeful. Would she be praised? No, probably not. Would Uni or Vert respond her letters? No, probably not. Not if they hadn't come for her already. She could just imagine burying herself into the biggest hug she could give Vert, with Uni holding onto her from behind.

She would close her eyes and be able to slip away into the two of them, her precious friends. She would be covered from every direction, shielded from every direction with...

... Would she be...?

Probably not.

Reality began to sink in. Nepgear wasn't embracing Vert, but a pair of fallen pillows. That wasn't Uni holding her from behind, no, it was just Nepgear's blanket.

She sighed. It... probably wasn't good that she was growing to be this lonely, was it...?

... Would Blanc get mad if she called up Lowee's Basilicom and asked for Rom and Ram to come over for a sleepover...?

"No, that wouldn't be fair. They've already gone to bed by this time, and I'm seeing them all tomorrow as it is. It's too late to even try asking..." Nepgear realized quietly. She should have realized that sooner — shouldn't have even bothered with Uni or Vert, and gone right for the ones that had actually stayed by her side instead. The image of Vert and Uni in her mind's eye now replaced with the twins, Nepgear managed to smile, if only for a moment. At least this might be a little bit possible for her. "Rom, Ram... I hope you're having sweet dreams tonight..."

Slowly, tentatively, Nepgear slipped into the gap between blankets and bed sheets. She laid her head down to rest on her pillow. She sighed, staring up at the ceiling above her. She didn't normally feel particularly tired when she went to bed — rather, she had an air of tiredness weighing over her all day. Something just told her her body needed sleep, that it was time to check the clocks and get ready if that feeling was on the mark, and so that was how she knew she needed it.

Tonight was a rare exception, thanks to her outburst a few moments ago.

Closing her eyes, Nepgear shifted in an attempt to get more comfortable. No, that wasn't quite right. She rolled onto her side. Frowning, she rolled onto her other side. Not quite. She returned to her back. She'd get there eventually.

Would the night that she was able to go to sleep without wondering if she would actually wake up the next day come soon?

She hoped so.

Somewhere in the area of an hour later, her heart finally stopped racing her imagination to see which would get a scream out of her first, and Nepgear at last was granted the right to sleep.

* * *

It hadn't been that strange for Neptune and Noire to sleep in different beds during that first month they had been married. At least half of the time, this had been more because of the fact that they had been unable to return to the same nation than for any other reason — they weren't even sleeping in the same building, so of course it was impossible to sleep in the same bed together.

Back then, they hadn't really had a choice when it had happened that way. So much was happening, so much was changing, if it had turned out that they couldn't make it back to where the other was before it was time to sleep, that was just a result of their efforts — proof that they weren't goofing off.

"And so, once again..."

Sitting cross legged on Noire's bed all by her adorable lonesome self was none other than Neptune. Fresh from her bath, she was staring out the window, watching the night sky with a passive expression on her face, letting the light of the moon wash over her as she gazed at the factories and other buildings of Lastation. Who could have known she would find herself in this bed, in this situation, just a few weeks ago?

Sticking her tongue out, she blew a raspberry in the direction of the open window, before falling sideways onto the bed. Her legs and arms still crossed, Neptune did not break her position as she continued her pre-sleep monologue. Just the sort of thing a good main character got to enjoy before giving themselves the reward of a long, cozy sleep.

"The Nep-Nep Rider continues to wage her never ending battle against the evil Goof Off Army. Her allies are few, and her enemies many! It's just _hopeless_!" Closing her eyes, Neptune shook her head. "But the Nep-Nep Rider won't give up — never! For as long as Nep Black is waiting for her in their secret hideout, wearing nothing but her helmet and a towel, which will conveniently slip off right when the Nep-Nep Rider arrives at the scene, very conveniently and all, and then the Nep-Nep Rider will..."

Neptune paused. Still somehow sitting cross legged on the bed at a perfect 90 degree angle, she held her hand to her chin as her expression became thoughtful. Something extremely important had just occurred to her. This could change _everything_...!

"Ah, but wait, if that's how it happens, then Nep Black would become the real Nep-Nep Rider, wouldn't she? This won't work..."

So much for _that_ exciting spinoff. She had been so sure that they could have worked up to some great sequels and team up specials after the fact too!

" _Although_... Maybe that could be the plot twist..." she wondered aloud, tilting her head ever so slightly, somehow not breaking her impossible seeming position all the while. "That would make for a pretty sweet movie..."

Oh, but... What kind of pre-order bonuses should she offer for it, she wondered... A cute doll of a secondary character, perhaps? A contest, with the prize being an invitation to a limited screening of another movie...?

Ah, but didn't that make it sound like they were in need of sales? Or did they just intend to amp up the price for the loyal fans who would pay anything? Wow, talk about good business! She really was getting used to this stuff!

"Nep-Nep Rider masks oughta do it in that case... We'd offer one with every ticket." Neptune nodded to herself. Even those cheap masks with the strings would do. Kids loved those, and adult fans would eat them up. Yeah, it'd be great. Everyone who was a fan would be dying to come to the movie for one of those masks! "For the _real_ hardcore fans, we could even have there be more than one mask, so you'd want to come more than once so you could collect them all... Wow, am I a genius or what?"

Oh yeah, she was the boss. Totes. For realsies. Aw yeah. She should get an award for how amazing she was.

Aw yea-ea-aaaaaah.

"Weeeeeeeell..."

Her voice cracked a little. She laughed.

"I guess it doesn't _really_ matter. After all, no matter _what_ we do, it turns out they don't like Nep-Nep Rider overseas all that much, do they?" After "hmmmm"ing to herself, Neptune giggled briefly. Localization sure was a tricky thing, huh? No wonder the Nep Rangers were loved everywhere... "It's super special easy to say a movie's a hit if it's part of a double feature that outdid everything else at the box office, but those poor movie guys _really_ have to figure out when to keep their mouths shut."

The goddess nodded knowingly, before continuing on as though she were giving a lecture on a subject she happened to be an expert in - Professor Nep T. Une had arrived!

"You can only, and gosh do I mean _only_ , say your movie is even a _little_ good in that kind of situation if you make sure to neeeeever ever ever ever _ever_ ask the audience if they were there only for one of the movies and not the other. That's the biggest no-go code of them all!"

Neptune became silent. For a few moments, she was perfectly still.

Then, suddenly, she began to smile.

"Buuuuuut! Iiiif yooooouuuu doooo ask that questiiiooooon, you miiiiiight just get lucky enough to be-"

 _"Hey hey, hold on, didn't the Lastation 4 just come out? They don't seriously expect us to get another console already, do they?"_

"-able-"

 _"Almost makes you wish you stuck with ASIC back in their heyday, huh...? I wouldn't blame anybody going to them now, with the CPUs taking advantage like this."_

"-to-"

 _"What is this... The marriage was one thing, but isn't this going too far?"_

"-find-"

 _"Isn't this why her nation fell apart in the first place? I feel so sorry for Lady Black Heart..."_

"-out-"

 _"Can't we start a petition to get them divorced...? The sooner those two drop dead and Lastation goes back to normal, the better."_

"-just-"

 _"What if Lady Black Heart ends up like her next? Maybe we should get out of here while we still can..."_

"-how-"

 _"Uwaaah, don't joke about that... Can't they just make her sister the CPU and split Planeptune and Lastation up again? Like... Can you imagine how bad it would be if...?"_

"-much-"

 _"I can! Lowee, Leanbox, as long as it's away from those two, I'm fine!"_

"-they-"

 _"That Purple Heart, she's nothing but a no good leech, isn't she?"_

"-haaaaaaate-"

 _"If she's a leech, then her sister's an even bigger leech that's leeching off the first leech!"_

"-yooouuuu!"

Limbs shooting out in all directions, the goddess broke out into a fit of laughter. Her smile was vibrant and wide, her gleeful giggles free as the wind. If someone were to walk into the room at this moment, it would appear like Neptune didn't have a care in all the world. It would look like the goddess was having the time of her life, or like some invisible assailant was tickling her to death, at the very least.

After what appeared to the world like a few blissful, joyous moments, Neptune's laughter began to fade. The goddess let herself relax from her awkward position at last, stretching out in the blankets and bed sheets that weren't her own yet had still somehow started to become just as familiar all the same. Her arm shot out with the speed of a viper, grasping onto a pillow and reeling it in just as quickly as she had made the grab for it. Her face had become hidden in shadows as a cloud drifted across the sky, blocking out the light of the moon.

For what seemed like far longer than it really was, Neptune remained silent. Like it was her only means of survival, she simply held onto the pillow as tightly as she could. She could smell a familiar smell if she tried hard enough. She could feel a familiar feel if she tried hard enough. Yes, this pillow would make a fine substitute.

Her muscles, now tense, were able to relax after so much time spent holding onto the soft, cuddly source of comfort that would be her companion to dream land this evening.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this, y'know..."

Her grip on the pillow tightened once more.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this at all."

Neptune didn't get much sleep that night.


	11. Chapter 11: The Pre-Posal

The world could be very... mysterious sometimes.

Although she was young, Nepgear felt like this was something she was becoming able to understand very well.

Things were bad for Planeptune right now. Things were really, terribly bad for them. Nepgear knew this. In fact, Nepgear wondered if she understood how bad they were more than even her supposed airhead of a sister did. She had never known things for Planeptune to be this bad before. Histoire was a nervous wreck and even Neptune was acting less and less like her bright and cheery self. Certainly, it _seemed_ like everyone understood how bad it was, with how upset they were acting, especially when Nepgear was able to catch them when they thought no one was around to see, but that was the thing... Nepgear...

Nepgear wasn't all that upset about it.

Oh, no, she wasn't _celebrating_ , certainly not, but...

Despite how their shares were plummeting, despite how their nation was facing a crisis like it never had before, and despite how not even Histoire seemed like she could think of anything they could do to fix this situation...

Nepgear just _wasn't_ as upset as the situation seemed like it called for her to be.

She should have been upset, but she just wasn't. She had ample reason to be upset, but as horrible as it made her feel for feeling this way...

She was actually... _enjoying herself_ a little.

But only a little!

Really!

* * *

"Hey, Nepgear! What are you doing?"

The CPU Candidate perked up at the sound of her sister's voice calling her name. She had been dozing off at the table, in the middle of filling out some kind of paperwork... Now that it was being asked, she had to wonder it herself. What _had_ she been doing again? Oh... Oh well, she supposed it didn't matter. She could get back to it later. Neptune needed her for something, and that always came first, now didn't it?

"Sorry sis, I..."

Nepgear frowned as her treasured older sister came into view. She trailed off, her words falling to the wayside as she took in the sight. The bags under Neptune's eyes were worse than they had been, and despite Nepgear's best efforts with packing their meals, it looked like she was still losing weight. Was her skin starting to pale as well, or was that the lighting of the room...? Come to think of it, Nepgear had been feeling like she needed glasses lately, but... Oh, never mind that, just look at her sister! _Look! At! Neptune!_ If her hair started falling out or something horrible like that... Nepgear wouldn't be able to control herself! She'd do whatever she had to to fix this!

She knew she wasn't much better off, but this was her sister — this was their nation's, no, _Nepgear's_ goddess! Neptune was the one that needed to be at the top of her game, yet look at her... It was heartbreaking for Nepgear to see the person she loved above all else in such a condition.

"Um... I actually... Goodness..." When it dawned on her that Neptune was honestly watching her and waiting for an answer, Nepgear found herself at a loss. She felt stricken. She was denying Neptune. "I don't remember, hahaha..." Nepgear scratched her cheek awkwardly and offered her sister a small smile as the CPU joined her, standing next to the seated Nepgear to look over whatever the CPU Candidate had been doing. Rather than join her sister at looking at the papers on the table, Nepgear chose instead to gaze at her sister. "How was... Oh, I... Dear, what was it? What were you doing again?"

Her words a jumbled mess, Nepgear settled for just looking at her sister.

Neptune... Her big sister... She was so misunderstood... She knew it so well. Neptune could do just as much as anyone else when the situation called for it. Yes, she could be a bit overbearing, and she was most certainly a little lazy at times, and it had been often that Nepgear had had to pick up the slack for her in the past, but... Just look at how she was handling this situation...!

Now she had to do this for her sister. She had to do her best. She had to do _better_ than her best.

"What was I doing? Ummm, nothing _super_ important... If it was super _anything_ , then it was super _boring_ , Nep Jr., nothing you want to know about. I had half a mind to sneak out of there, you know? Well, if you really wanna know, you'll hear about it later anyways." Neptune smiled at her sister, but this smile wasn't nearly as genuine as the ones Nepgear was used to. Nepgear could tell. Even when she talked about work, in the past, Neptune would make faces and make fun of it, but... But this wasn't the kind of face she was making at all. And to make that smile real again... Nepgear knew...

Still wearing that smile, Neptune looked from Nepgear to the items on the table once more. It looked almost like she was dreading what she'd see... But then?

"Oh, this is about that thing Histy wanted for!" Her sister lit up, vibrant and beautiful, just like she used to look all the time. She gave Nepgear a brief hug before she pulled away to kiss her briefly on the cheek, her eyes shining. Nepgear wished they could have been shining with more than relief — relief that Neptune didn't have to come home just to do this herself — but it was a start. "You're amazing, Nep Jr., seriously...! I thought I was gonna have to dig into this dumb old thing now... I might actually have enough time to do some quests tonight! You really saved your big sister's tush here!"

To bring back her sister's smile...

To make her not have to work and go questing so much...

Nepgear would do it...

No... She _had_ to do it. It had to be her. No one else could do this. This was something that Nepgear... had to... no one else... had the...

"Whoa whoa whoa! Hey, c'mere, kiddo, you don't look so good. Wanna take a nap or something?" Nepgear was pulled away from her thoughts as an arm wrapped around her shoulders, shaking her ever so slightly. Neptune was gently holding her... Had she been falling asleep again? That was no good — she needed to be strong for Neptune! And she needed to be awake to be there for her most of all! "We're gonna be all good again soon, okay? Just hang in there a little more, then we can go right back to kicking everybody's butts like usual, you'll see."

The Candidate's expression softened at the display. Neptune was smiling at her, just like she always did. This was right. This was how it should be. One would think she should be calling Neptune "kiddo" rather than the other way around, but this was how it was. And it was moments like this that she treasured more than any other. These brief moments she got to feel like the little sister to Neptune when Neptune was still Neptune.

And it was during times like these, as she drifted off to sleep in her older sister's arms, that she couldn't help but think... she couldn't help but want...

Maybe she didn't have to do it _that_ quickly... Maybe... Maybe if things stayed like this a little longer...

Then Neptune would be like this with her... that much longer too...

What was the worst that could happen?

* * *

More and more, most of Neptune's time, free and otherwise, was spent with Nepgear now.

Nepgear's stomach churned thinking about it, but the fact was... She had spent more time with her sister, bonding with her sister, growing closer to her sister, in these past few months than she had in what must have been years. All they were doing was working hard, trying to repair things, trying to fill in every hole that popped up in the balloon that was Planeptune... but the fact of the matter was that three more followed in the place of the ones they managed to seal. It was never ending now.

Still... She was sure things would get better eventually. Things would eventually go back to normal, as they always did. Just... _eventually_ was all. They didn't have to _rush_ it or anything yet... It wasn't like the whole world was in trouble... The two of them could tough it out if it meant they could be together like this more, right...?

Neptune would be back to running around with the other CPUs and goofing off with them in no time at all, and she would be able to go play with the other Candidates again like normal as well. Soon enough, the world would go back to the way it was before all of this. Beach parties and thoughts of mishaps with sun tan lotion... It all just seemed like a dream now, a very happy dream, but they'd get back there eventually. Nepgear had to get Neptune back there — if only for Neptune's own sake.

There weren't any other real alternatives, were there? She just couldn't even imagine there being any.

It just was going to happen _eventually_. That was all.

Things always worked out. It wasn't as though there was anything _threatening_ them... They had just... They had just let things get ahead of them, without them being there to keep up, that was all it was. They had just hit something of a rough patch, that was all this was. Her sister or Histoire would figure something out, maybe she might even be able to do it, and then everything would be right as rain again.

She would be lying if she said that it didn't get lonely in a different way sometimes... She hadn't seen Uni or Rom or Ram or Vert or IF or Compa or Blanc or Noire or Nisa or Gust or just about _any_ of the others all that much in a long time, or so it felt like. They were all busy themselves, she understood, and she was so wrapped up in Planeptune's business — and _Nep-Nep_ tune's business — that it wasn't as though she was in a position to go seeking anyone out, for that matter... And you know, it seemed like there were a lot less people around these days too...

But that ever growing void had been filled up by Neptune. Nepgear had always wanted this much attention from someone, and her sister most of all.

She wished they could have been doing something more enjoyable like playing games or eating out or just watching television, even, but just being with her sister like this... It was something unlike anything she had experienced before.

She was seeing what it was like to be a CPU in her own right. She really felt like she felt the weight of her sister's responsibilities — she was _sharing_ in her sister's responsibilities, just as her sister must feel like she had a share in hers too...!

So...

So with all of that in mind...

Was it really so wrong of her to be enjoying this?

... Even just a little...?

* * *

Nepgear was feeling good today.

Some new software was set to release for the Nepcast tomorrow. It wasn't anything spectacular, but Histoire had projected at least a moderate share increase, even if "moderate" in the numbers they were talking didn't really mean all that much in the grand scene of things... It still should at least give the two sisters a little more pep, or so Histoire predicted, and Nepgear was looking forward to that. She was even going to ask Neptune to play it with her! Just for a little, just the first stage... They could afford that much, she thought.

It... It had been a long time since they'd really played anything...

But but but but but...!

"W-We've done other things... So..." Yawning, the CPU Candidate glanced down at the bundle in her arms, a smile creeping its way onto her face. It was a large grocery bag. Most of the nearby stores had been closed today, but she had walked down to the supermarket, the really big one that was part of a chain from Leanbox — Vert-Mart — that the goddess had fixed up after learning about some unsavory practices the former owners had been pushing. Naturally, this meant she had gone shopping while there had been pictures of Vert all over the place... It was odd, but it wasn't hurting shares any having it around, so Nepgear was okay with it. "I wonder... Goodness, it feels like it's been so long. I wonder how Vert is doing...?"

Nepgear could only imagine what the blonde goddess might say if she knew what was going on in Planeptune. Surely, she must have known some of the details, but she doubted anyone on the outside _really_ knew. Not even IF and Compa had been privy to the details as of late.

The young goddess bit her lip at the thought.

"Maybe I'll give IF a call once the launch is done with..." Nepgear told herself. Her words were shallow. Her intentions... half-hearted. She probably wasn't going to do it. Not if it meant a third wheel in her time with Neptune. Was she normally so desperate for her sister? In the back of her mind, it felt strange for her to be this way, but she quickly brushed it off as the Basilicom came into view. She picked up her pace, or at least as much as she could, in the hopes of seeing her sister's face that much sooner. "Heehee! I can't wait to show her what I got her... She's going to be so surprised!"

Naturally, it was pudding. All her and her sister's favorites.

The Basilicom was as quiet as ever, or at least as ever as of the past few months, but it didn't bother Nepgear. It meant she could hear Neptune coming that much sooner, without any of the background noise getting in the way. Humming a tune as she went, the CPU Candidate made her way to the kitchen to drop off the goods — it wouldn't do them any good if the food spoiled before Neptune got home from work.

"Maybe I should make dinner early...?" Just the thought of not eating now... And spending the energy to cook... Normally, this would be fine, but these days... Today in particular... Well, Nepgear was feeling positively _famished_. Just thinking about food made her tummy rumble. Flushing, she shot looks around to make sure she hadn't been overheard in such a compromising position!

The CPU Candidate sighed in relief.

Thankfully, she hadn't, not that that would have been _so_ terrible... But it was good to keep up the best appearances, especially now, wasn't it? It was important for helping her sister repair things, after all...!

"Goodness... Maybe... Maybe I should go find Neptune and see if she wants to go get some lunch instead." Thoughts of Neptune would naturally take Nepgear to thoughts of seeing her now. Why wouldn't they? "It's still early, isn't it?"

Nepgear shot a look towards the clock. She could probably make it to the office nearby the Guild where Neptune was going to be for the next few hours. If she hurried, she could either grab them both some food, or if she _really_ hurried, get Neptune out of there and take her somewhere nice! Their favorite mom-and-pop diner, And Cankles, was having a special today if Nepgear remembered right.

"Yes... W... Wait for me, Sis!" Smiling brightly, Nepgear let out a loud yawn and made her way out of the kitchen. They were going out for lunch!

At least... that had been the plan. While Nepgear had intended to seek out her sister, for some reason, her body just... felt this... _need_ to find somewhere comfortable. Like a wave of tiredness had washed over her, as if she'd been standing in the ocean of sleepiness and the tides had suddenly changed on her.

Well... She _had_ been up late, hadn't she...?

Maybe a nap was in order. She could look pretty for Neptune when she got home later...?

"Goodness... It's not even noon yet..." Yawning again, the CPU Candidate wondered if maybe she shouldn't have gone shopping. Had such a small task really taken that much out of her...? If that was the case... Should she tell someone...? No... No it must have been nothing. She had just stayed up too late, that was all. Dismissing the thought, she sat down. She supposed a nap wouldn't, _couldn't_ hurt much... Settling down, she sighed to herself. "Oh well... It's okay. I... I should get some rest for now. That's all I need to do to feel better, right...?"

She felt... Heavy... She was really tired, wasn't she? If she wanted to be at her best for Neptune, she really _should_ probably just take a little nap. They could have some food... later on, right?

Nepgear closed her eyes, a soft smile on her face. Tomorrow was going to be a big day... a good day... She had to go to sleep early so she could be... wide... awa...

ke... fo...r...

i...

...t...

* * *

Neptune had been staring at the wall for longer than she had stared at just about anything. A goddess as quick and hyper as her, even these days, rarely stayed in place for long, but now she felt like she had been turned to stone. Histoire had left her some time ago... probably. Maybe it was only a little while ago that the fairy woman had left her to her own devices. Neptune wasn't sure. As soon as her Oracle had explained to Neptune what was happening to Nepgear, after her rejecting the idea and her denial of it finally stopped, it seemed like everything else had stopped soon after.

Neptune had just stopped.

She just couldn't get that image out of her mind.

Thinning hair. Skin starting to lose its luster. A body slowly falling apart. A story told through breaths that should have been far more full and peaceful, yet...

Neptune closed her eyes. She shuddered at the thought. Just the description had been more than enough, yet the proof was here right in front of her.

And who could she turn to and blame for it...?

Could it be... _her_ fault?

This wasn't like the other times.

There wasn't a fun adventure she could fall back on for a distraction.

There was no villain here she could conveniently give the blame.

Oh, she had certainly tried to look for one for a little while. It was in her nature.

Avoid the blame. Duck away from responsibility. Push it off onto someone else. Get Nep Jr. to do it. Hope Histy has a shortcut. Go bother Noire until someone else does it while she's gone. There was nothing wrong with any of that, was there?

That was how she had lived up her life — it was only these past few weeks, growing ever so slowly on months now, she had been forced to do some things differently... but even then, she still was able to be herself, for the most part. In the end, the bad guys would always be the one that would be the cause of the real problems, and she, the main character, the heroine, would be the one to fix everything. These were the simple rules of the world.

... So...

Where was the villain this time?

Where was the out now?

Was there just... not one?

That wasn't how these things worked. There had to be something. Something that Neptune could point to. Something that Neptune could raise up her sword against and slash away at until it was dead and the day was saved. Just like always!

So... So why wasn't that like that now...? What was going on? Why wasn't it...

No... No... No, Neptune knew that she was still avoiding one possibility. Avoidance was one of her specialties.

Because, oh yes, there was still one very obvious possibility.

There was no one else to point to. Hadn't she just thought it herself?

The only direction she could point her finger was towards a mirror.

It was her.

This **was** her fault.

This was **her** fault.

Neptune was the villain.

Neptune was the problem.

Neptune had done this.

Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune Neptune _Neptune_.

The goddess rose. Her tired body felt a thousand times more tired without Nepgear at her side... but she knew she couldn't rest now.

She wouldn't. She refused.

She reached out for her sister. She begged with her heart for the bedridden girl to respond — to reach back and take her hand, to open her eyes and smile, to reveal this was all just a really convincing makeup job, a prank to motivate her even more, to congratulate her on the work she'd done so far but to remind her that if she'd been any later, this is what _would_ happen, but definitely not what _had_ \- Nepgear would wake up any second now and tell her that this was nothing more than a CG too depressing for anyone to ever have to see and that it would be left out of the final release...! Surely, that was what was going to happen...!

Nothing happened.

Nepgear didn't open her eyes. Nepgear didn't take Neptune's hand. Nepgear didn't... anything.

As this finally sunk in, Planeptune's goddess sunk to her knees in turn. Months of failures and a body getting more and more tired, and less and less able to keep up with it all, finally couldn't take it anymore.

Clutching her sister's bed sheets, Neptune began to sob.

"Why... Why couldn't it have been me instead?! Why...? Why? _Why!?_ I can't do this! She's the one who's good at this! I don't save people, I sit on my fat lazy butt and get saved by people like her! That's all I'm good for, isn't it?!"

Nothing.

"So bring her back! Bring her back right now! Give me my Nepgear back...!"

There was no reaction.

"Bring her... _back_...!"

There was no answer.

"... Please..."

She might as well have been yelling into an empty room.


	12. Chapter 12: The Plot Before the PLOT

Morning had come to Lowee.

Recently — over the past week or so, to be specific — a strange phenomenon had started taking place in Lowee's Basilicom. The CPU had been taking part in rousing the CPU Candidates from bed and getting them up, rather than leaving it to the nation's Oracle.

To those who had heard of the change in attitude in their goddess, needless to say, this was causing quite a stir.

Was she worried about something?

Had she taken to wanting to see the twins that much earlier in the day?

Could it be the twins had done something so terrible that the goddess didn't intend to let them live it down?

Did the Oracle have some kind of leverage that was allowing her to force the goddess into performing her duties for her?

Those who had seen traces of the event could only wonder. Only bits and pieces of information had been uncovered by those loyal attendants of the Basilicom. At the very least, all were very thankful their lady was finally having the chance to appear in the story once again. It was about time!

Appearances aside, there must have been more to this strange push for her sisters' attention beyond a grab at more screen time. There simply must be! It wasn't as though their nation's Oracle was getting any that such a move would allow Lady White Heart to have had in her stead, so what could it be?

Whatever the cause... It was all rumored to have started after the night the three sisters had spent together, a mysterious event it was said the Oracle was truly sorrowful she had not witnessed personally. Whether or not such a thing had _actually_ happened remains to be seen. What was true was that, for whatever reasons she may have had, Lowee's goddess, Blanc, had taken to barking orders at her little sisters bright and early...

... like she'd gotten finished doing just now!

* * *

"How do you mix up toothpaste and shampoo almost _every_ morning...?"

Blanc didn't know how they did it over and over again like they did, but at least she had stopped a tragedy before it had happened. She could call that a victory and not question it any further, she supposed.

As soon as she was sure the twins were brushing their teeth and not each others' hair (with their tooth brushes no less! again!), the goddess had returned to her own bedroom to get ready for the day. The three of them were going to be visiting Planeptune to see Nepgear again later in the day, towards the evening. The twins had made some plans to go over to Planeptune in order to play a "scary" game with Nepgear, so it had to be dark for this big event. Blanc had been debating on whether or not she would stick around, but she supposed she could go along with it so long as it wasn't _too_ scary.

And if it _was_ , she'd just have to stick around and scare the hell out of them herself when they were distracted. Give 'em a _real_ story to tell around the camp fire, so to speak.

"If only what to scare them with was still the least of my worries..." Blanc said to herself, casting a brief glance upwards at the thought of those "worries" of hers. Thanks to a certain _someone_ , that hadn't been the case for a while... but that was going to change soon enough, she hoped.

Blanc had made a decision.

It was very likely a foolish decision, a decision guided by impulse and emotion, but she had made it and she felt resolved to sticking by it.

She wanted out. She wanted no part of Vert's schemes. The whole thing was a load of BS, and she was done with it.

There _had_ to be another way. As irrational and ridiculous as the fuming logical parts of her recognized that this choice was probably going to be for her, she had decided... she had decided that she would be the only one who got to be Rom and Ram's older sister. It was a dumb reason, but it was hers all the same. What kind of sister, what kind of example, would she be if she didn't at least _try_ for them before she gave up and accepted what Vert had told her so blindly? Lowee wasn't Leanbox, and it sure as hell wasn't Planeptune.

She would absolutely find another way out. She wasn't going to tie herself down to anybody she didn't want to for any reasons other than her own — what would the twins think if they found out?

They did things their own way in Lowee, damn the rest of the world, and that was all there was to it.

She recognized that she might have been using the twins as an excuse. She recognized that the logic went completely against her original reasoning for agreeing to Vert's scheme in the first place. She told herself if things got _really_ , really serious, surely she could change her mind if she _had_ to...

Blanc could feel herself turning green at the thought of standing next to Green Heart in matching wedding dresses. She didn't want that-

She didn't want Vert. She didn't want to be _forced_ into something, damn it, she just-

Her fists clenched tight, the goddess shook her head. She didn't want the twins to find out, and she'd kept her trap shut enough that Mina still didn't know about the deal she had made with Vert — the deal she intended to go back on now.

She had made her decision, hadn't she? Damn right she had. So she wasn't going to just keep dwelling on it like this. Nepgear waking up and Neptune and Noire's new machine hadn't killed Lowee or Leanbox yet, Planeptune didn't seem to be shooting off into the stars like they all thought it had been going to, so she still had plenty of time to think of something. Sure, things _might_ have been going the way Vert had predicted — _slowly_ — but that just meant Blanc had _time,_ now didn't it?

"Which means I should probably... do something about Vert finally. So I can get started on my own." Blanc told herself, her voice growing distant. When Rom and Ram had gone to visit Nepgear, she'd tended to hang behind in the city — assuming she didn't ditch until the time the twins had said they had wanted to fly home with her. So it wasn't like she didn't _normally_ have time, and today she would have plenty of time to finally let Vert know she was either on her own, or she could help Blanc look for an alternati... "Ah, wait. The 'scary game'."

Right. If it really was _too_ scary, she probably shouldn't leave the twins. She supposed she'd have to stick around the Basilicom for the whole visit this time. That meant hanging around Nepgear, didn't it?

Blanc pursed her lips. It wasn't that she was eager to deal with Vert or anything, and it wasn't like she _wanted_ to avoid her fellow bookworm — and it certainly wasn't like she didn't care what happened to the girl either. The simple truth of it was that Rom and Ram were closer to her, and to be perfectly candid, the kid looked like enough of a nervous wreck on the first two visits that Blanc was worried her presence on top of that of the twins' would overwhelm her.

"Maybe the third time really is the charm?" the brunette mused to herself thoughtfully. The most recent visit _had_ been better. Maybe she'd stick around even if the 'scary game' wasn't that bad and scope things out. She really was curious — maybe she'd loan the poor kid a book or something before she left. She'd seen all the junk Vert had dumped on her when she'd peeked into the girl's room, some of it clearly having been messed with it, much of it left untouched... but Blanc doubted something from her could hurt much, could it?

"I wonder what's going on in her head... In all their heads over there."

It was weird how she hadn't once run into Neptune with how many times the twins had gone and visited Nepgear, but she wasn't going to complain about it. She had barely seen Neptune since she'd figured out how she felt about the purple haired nincompoop, and she'd like to keep it that way for the time being. At least until she got it out of her system... And until she had a proper answer for Vert — was she really, definitely backing out of this like she kept telling herself she was? — she intended to avoid that nuisance as well.

"And of course, then there's Noire..." Blanc bit the inside of her mouth as she thought about the black haired goddess. She had no idea what she'd do if she ran into Noire. "Maybe... I can sic Rom on her and run."

Well it wasn't like any of her other recent plans were any better.

Sure, why not? Until she thought of something better, Rom was going to be her anti-Noire weapon.

"Besides, it's not like I'd ever actually have to resort to something dumb like that..."

* * *

This morning had been one shock after the other for Chika Hakozaki, and that was saying something considering she'd been on the receiving end of her share of shocks as of late.

Her beloved sister was leaving her to go on a date with another woman! ... Well, this in and of itself wasn't a terribly disastrous problem, as Chika had actually been plotting for such a thing for some time now — all for her sister's sake! It was just, in this disastrous situation... The "another woman" was the woman (technically) (in a manner of speaking) (sort of but not really) who had brought such despair to her beloved elder sister in the first place!

Oh, Chika couldn't stand the thought of this! This was not how this was supposed to go _at all_! If it was going to come down to this, it should have been her! No, it should have been her anyway, but Chika was willing to let it go for her sister's happiness!

I-In any case... Yes... On the bright side, while her sister was away, her sister's long lost twin, whose heart was broken, whose body was aching and in need of comfort, would be under the same roof as Chika for who knew how lon-

"Oh dear, what time is it..." Interrupting Chika's thoughts just in time to halt the fountain of drool before it was turned on, Vert stepped up to her Oracle and looked her in the eye. She had already changed into the clothes the Vert from the other dimension had prepared for her, and was "One last thing before I go. Do not put any moves on her while I'm gone. I'll only be gone for the afternoon, but I know that's plenty for you, o wonderful Oracle of mine. Are we clear?"

Chika puffed out her cheeks in frustration. A woman could only offer so much of herself before she began to draw the line with such treatment!

... Ah, but her sister could cross _her_ lines any time she wanted...

Wait, that wasn't the point, was it? Where was she again?

"Sister, do you really have to do this? If you're going to go on a 'date' with someone, can't you..." Chika trailed off. She already knew that Vert would reject her — she had chosen to accept this the moment she had decided to try to stop her sister's plan. There were alternatives, they both knew it, even if Vert had chosen to avoid them for some ridiculous reason or another. "That is to say... Why not..."

... go to Planeptune instead and call this off?

The words didn't come out.

Vert's gifts must have arrived at Planeptune's Basilicom days ago, and Chika had made sure they had all been clearly marked as Vert's. What was taking that CPU Candidate so long? Did she just... not care about her sister? Even though her sister cared so much?! Oh, what nerve! Why, Chika would-

\- happily take the girl's place for herself if she could!

Dismissing any thoughts Chika had of this date being called off, Vert shook her head.

"Now you listen to me, Chika, I am the only one who can help her out now that she's gotten herself into this, and I fully intend to support her." Vert grinned cheerfully at her Oracle, and despite herself, Chika nearly swooned. It had been far too long since she'd seen her beloved like this. "Besides, don't you think it sounds like fun? Impersonating another woman to go out and have a rendezvous with that woman's true love, who doesn't even recognize her existence, as they both chase after a pair of potential lovers in an attempt to break them up... It's just the kind of vacation I needed from all of this nonsense over here!"

Chika felt like she was starting to understand why Vert had gone from being bothered about having to go on a date with a Blanc to being excited about playing in this setting straight from one of her games that she had come up with in her head.

This- This was called... _LARPing_ , wasn't it?

Oh no, that was _exactly_ what this was!

Oh, her poor, poor sister. Chika couldn't imagine what it was like to think like that... _Vert, your **real** sister is here for you!_

"Now then, I believe I'm all set. So, are we clear? Leave her be. I've prepared all sorts of activities for her so she can keep her mind off of what I'll be doing in her place, and I don't need her out making a mess of things over here, so..." Vert looked Chika in the eye, and Chika was quite sure she _did_ swoon in that moment — only to simultaneously revive just to swoon once again! "If it comes down to it, make sure she's having a good time, but only _her_ , okay Chika?"

Chika sighed, defeated under the might of Vert's gaze, before finally nodding weakly. She just couldn't win. Turning to go, Vert turned back and offered her Oracle a smile. Chika really was a blessing — a dear friend like few could ever be. And Vert didn't even know the half of it.

Vert turned away, smiling to herself. If only Chika had been a CPU, virtually all of her current problems would be... No no, she supposed that was a thought she'd best not linger too long on. It was forbidden.

"Chika! How about this? If I come back and no one..." Vert paused. Despite her own plans, she supposed there wasn't any harm in it if, for whatever reason, her counterpart decided she was interested. If the Blanc on the other side proved to be a stone wall, Vert didn't want to leave her high and dry after all. "If I come back, and _she_ hasn't been put into any inappropriate positions against her will, how about we go out tomorrow evening? We haven't done that... well... in years, I would say. So what do you say?"

If it were up to Vert, she could be plenty happy "going out" by simply booting up her favorite game and playing for hours on end — but if she were to bribe Chika properly, then she had to dangle the appropriate item. It wasn't really fair of her, she knew, but it wouldn't be fair of her to leave her "twin," someone lacking the years of experience she had had with her Oracle, all alone with Chika without having taken any precautions.

As it turned out, Vert had made the right call. She could practically _hear_ the sparkles coming off of Chika from the room she had just left.

"Your wish is my command, sister! Have a wonderful date — try not to think of _our_ upcoming date _too_ much!"

"Yes, yes. Have fun this afternoon, Chika...!" Her voice twinkling with laughter for the first time in so long, Vert left — and just like that, Chika was all alone.

Ah well... Vert was gone now, and this new Vert that was to be arriving a little while later was off limits. Truly, was there any greater tragedy than this?

At least Chika supposed she could at least busy herself with her sister's-

"Oh, and Chika, I went ahead and changed my computer's password before I shut it down last night, so I hope you do not have any intentions of tampering with it and making yourself into my screensaver again. Only myself and... Heehee, let's call her my little twin sister, yes, only the two of us know what it is right now." A beat, then the playful tone of voice that had been calling from down the hall grew stern. "So no funny business! I have not forgotten the last time, you know!"

As the sound of a door closing echoed throughout the Basilicom, signifying Vert's exit, Chika couldn't help but smile.

After all...

Chika sighed dreamily, picking up a nearby napkin and biting down hard into it as she tugged with all her might.

... her intention had been for Vert to not forget from the start!


	13. Chapter 13: Vert In, Vert Out

_Hello everyone!_

 _This is just a quick reminder that the story will be going on break after this chapter for a little while. I want to thank all of you for sticking with me so far, and I hope you'll look forward to when we get back to business again soon. I know that's a bummer, believe me, but_ _I hope that won't stop you from enjoying this chapter in the meantime.  
_

 _It's been a lot of fun getting back to The Proposal again, and I hope everyone's been enjoying reading it as much as I've been writing it._

 _I'll be seeing you soon, guys! Until then!  
_

* * *

Today was a big day for Famitsu. Today would be the day that would make or break everything for her — especially her bones! Probably! Maybe! Hopefully not though! Because she really liked them not being broken, you see!

For today... Today was the day she was going to interview the CPU Candidate for sure.

Just listen to her dramatic internal monologues there. She was going to have some front page stuff yet.

"Oooooor I'm going to get fired today, never again to work in this wonderful, unbiased industry I so love. So it had _better_ be a big day for me..." the red haired journalist added to herself, nodding ferociously as she adjusted her crown in the mirror. She was stylin'! Pulling on her gloves with a snap and a snap, then adjusting her camera bag, she knew that she was ready! She was going to hunt down the CPU Candidate if it was the last thing she did.

Since if she didn't, trying _would_ be the last thing she did.

While she was still employed, anyway.

Which was basically the same thing.

More or less.

Give or take.

Was there a "k" in basically?

She'd have to double check that later.

Maybe Dengekiko knew.

Probably not.

For now, however, she was off on her biggest mission yet!

Wearing a bright, award winning smile, Famitsu pumped a gloved fist into the air. It was a pose that would make any hedgehog jealous.

"To the Basilicom!"

* * *

"She... She really called me her little sister? Really? _Really_ , she did that?"

Chika nodded slowly. It was taking all of her willpower to not hug the adorable, lovely, not to mention _sparkling_ mass of Vert-shaped happiness that was clutching her arms like a lifeline standing before her. Why, she looked like she was starting to cry she was so happy! This Vert was so... _cute_! So sweet! So...

... _yummy_!

Really... A hug — especially in a situation like this — wouldn't go against anything her elder sister had asked of her, would it? And a hug — physical as hugs tended to be — couldn't be considered against the rules _even_ if hands were to _accidentally_ travel to places unknown, could it?

Certainly... Certainly a _hug_ would be just _fine_... Yes, Chika was sure of it now — how could she not be, when she had no one but herself here to tell her otherwise?

Just as Chika raised her arms up, eyes glinting like a predator about to strike her prey, a gamer about to pounce on a sale, a Mina about to take a bath with the twins, Vert stepped back to spin around and hug herself, stopping short to face Chika head on.

She was so _excited_! She had come here full of worries about how the other Vert would handle the "date" with Blanc, and instead she had received a wonderful surprise in the form of this "gift" from her new elder sister!

"This is marvelous!" she declared without warning, stomping a foot down to emphasize just how grand this turn of events was. The Ultradimension's Vert beamed at her counterpart's Oracle. Not only would the titles "Older Sister Vert" and "Younger Sister Vert" make things so much easier on the narration (because after all, going by where they were from was _so_ two sentences ago), but... _She was a little sister now_! And a _twin_ on top of that! What a positively wonderful sudden turn of events!

Why, if nothing else, just think of the niches she (not to mention her new twin too, of course) would be able to conquer!

Oh no, this wasn't the time to think like that, was it?

Should she... Should she start wearing her hair differently to celebrate this joyous occasion? Or dye it, perhaps? Those were popular twin traits, weren't they? She couldn't cut hers, that was part of her character, but they already wore different clothes as it was, so...

\- well, _normally_ , they wore different clothes. Today, they were wearing each others' clothes, seeing as they _were_ taking the place of the other and all. This would all be for nothing if they hadn't thought to take _that_ step.

What's more, now that these clothes belonged to her "older sister," Vert couldn't help but find she felt more... _mature_ wearing them. Yes, that's what it was. How _fun_!

"And she left me so much to do while she's taking care of my problems for me as well?" She remarked, a pile of games and anime sitting oh so perfectly arranged on her new elder sister's desk catching her eye. There was that one that had been brought up the day before that she had been eager to play, and she already knew the password to her sister's computer... "It looks like I'll have plenty to occupy myself with before my new sister returns!"

Innocently turning to her sister's Oracle, looking for the world like she was as untrained to the ways of Chika as the elder Vert had expected her to be, the younger Vert beckoned Chika over to Vert's desk.

Watching their prey, the predato-errr.

Watching her sweet guest, the _loving sister_ in Chika, the _caring friend_ in Chika, the _open armed embracer_ in Chika already could tell that this Vert must be the type to live alone. It was just such a pity she had made a promise not to do anything about it...

Oh, how cruel fate was! Chika could curse the heavens for all her rotten luck! Or at least Lowee! And Lastation and Planeptune too!

And... And...

Oh, how enchanting her new sister was! Why was she so upset again?

"Which of these do you think I should play first?" There was of course the one Vert intended to play from the start, but she supposed if there was one Chika wanted to play together... Vert wouldn't be opposed. She so rarely got to spend time with this woman — they'd barely spoken in the past! — and she didn't seem at all like the type of person her "sister" had made her out to be. "Perhaps we could..."

Dutifully following after this lovely specimen of a goddess, Chika started to smile. Sighing dreamily, she wondered if it would be that bad at all to live like this forever... Surrounded by to Verts... Even if it was the end of the world... Her world was all in this Basilicom anyway, so...

"Hold on now... Hmmm? Dear, she never listened to that message she got yesterday..." the newly proclaimed Little Sister Vert tilted her head curiously when she caught sight of her older sister's answering machine, still blinking the same as it had been before she had left the day beforehand. Had she just "Excuse me... Chika? Why didn't Ver-" Pausing, Vert smiled coyly. "Why didn't _our wonderful older sister_ take this call from Planeptune? Something seemed amiss yesterday, but I'm not clear on any of the details."

And just like that, Chika's world was set ablaze.

Uh oh. Uh oh... Uh oh!

Chika knew her sister hadn't told this new sister everything, but what were the specifics? What was okay? What wasn't okay? How was she to know what she could discuss and what she was to remain silent about?

Rather, should she ignore what Vert had told her and speak outside of orders? Should she disregard the reward waiting for her at the end of the tunnel in pursuit of the greater reward of Vert's happiness? What was she to do?

Wait, if she was going to ignore orders, then didn't that mean so many other things were suddenly going to become fair game as well? Oh, Chika wasn't sure if she was prepared for all of these possibilities opening up to her all at once like this!

 _And while she was thinking them over, the other Vert was getting ready to listen to the message!_

"Ah, that? That's..." Chika hesitated. This could present a problem. How loyal was this other Vert to the girl that _her_ Vert was out on a date with? If her loyalty was great, then Chika might be able to ask for help with what she had been trying to do for her beloved sister... _Their_ beloved sister... Yet if this Vert was too fickle... There was always the chance that she could take advantage of the situation, and choose to go after Nepgear for herself! "I-It's probably something related to business, I'm sure! Why, sister just wanted to save it for after she took care of your affairs, that's all! She's so wonderful and wise and caring and beautiful that she wanted to focus everything on you for now, you see!"

Chika earned the most adorable, sweetest, blankest of blinks in response as the girl processed this. If only she had had a camera- Ah, but she had greater concerns!

Was she really going to buy it? Did Vert believe her?

No, this was Vert, surely-

"Oh, I see... That makes sense... Never mind all of this, then." The younger sister Vert nodded after another moment more of consideration, moving away from the phone to settle down in Vert's chair. She seemed pleased enough with the feel of that that the phone was already forgotten. "She really is something. I've got some catching up to do...!"

Chika stared, her mouth falling open as the Vert before her began typing away at the computer. Thoughts of the phone seemed already to have flown the coop in the little Vert's head.

Vert is something? No no, Chika told herself, _this_ Vert, _this_ Vert was something as well! Just... Whoa! Whoa _mama_! This Vert had bought Chika's bluff completely!

Curse the world that separated Chika from this Vert! Curse the world that had kept them separated until this Vert had given her heart to another! Now Chika couldn't help but find herself hoping that this Vert _was_ the fickle type! Forgive her, sister, but Chika wasn't sure if she was going to be able to restrain herself after all! Oh, forgive her, sister, but Chika would not mind at all if you were to fail in your mission in the other dimension if it kept this fine specimen single...!

"A-Anyway... You should play whatever you'd like. I'll be right over here if you need anything at all — absolutely anything!" Chika made sure to add the appropriate emphasis, wondering if her beloved and wonderful sister had told this Vert about her positive traits as well. "So enjoy yourself! I'll be perfectly content just watching..."

Shaking her head, Chika began to walk over to her favorite armchair — that is, the one she could always smell her beloved sister's fragrance on without getting caught because she would drape herself over it due to her constant and very serious illnesses. It seemed like everything was resolved for the time being, so she could lay back, watch this adorable Vert play, and relax...

Or so she thought.

"Chi- Chikaaaaaa! Chika, my, you must hurry and come look at this! Nepgear wants to see me- Wait, no, that isn't what I mean, she wants our _sister_! And..." Alarmed, Lil Sis Vert-chan began summarizing her thoughts aloud to Chika, her tone becoming increasingly more confused. "It sounds like she hasn't seen or heard from her since she woke up? No, that can't be, can it? Why would that possibly be the case? If it were me, I would have rushed immediately to her side! With or without Blanc, when the princess awakens from her slumber, it is the princess' duty to be there for the princess! Oh, what was she thinking...? Chika, what is going on?"

Needless to say, Chika's mouth fell all the way open this time.

Could it be? Could it have finally happened? Had her prayers finally been answered?

Wait, no, more importantly, was the wrong Vert going to be the one to receive them?!

"Chika, we'd better hear what she wanted to say." Oblivious to Chika, if not to the entire world, the imouto species of the Vert continued on her mission for the truth. If she kept this up, she might find herself inside a television if she wasn't careful! And without a single adorable mascot in sight too! "I don't think that call was about business if Nepgear's e-mail came after that phone call she missed yesterday... Hold on just a moment, let me see... Let me just, yes... There we go!"

A-And now she was listening to the message?! Chika held out her hand desperately, comically staggering forwards towards the desk like she was detached from reality, but it was too late — the message had already started. There was no going back for her — or for Vert — now.

Oh, just stop, _stop_... Her heart couldn't take this!

Neither one of these sisters listened to her... Neither one of them...!

But no matter how much Chika tried to will it away, sure enough, the message had already begun to play.

 _"Vert? Jeez... Why aren't you picking up? ... Are you going to pick up if you hear me talk a little longer? Is that the idea? I suppose that's really funny to you, isn't it? ... No? ... I hope you're not there laughing at me, or else! ... Hmph. I guess Neptune is the only one dumb enough to do that._

 _..._

 _She is, right?_

 _... Okay, I'm going to trust you now and assume you really aren't there._

 _Vert, listen, it's Noire. I don't know what you've been doing, but get it together, would you? Nepgear's been asking about you. If you of all people are making her ask for you, something's stinks, and not like the flower petals all over your balcony either. Call me back, or better yet, just come over and visit her as soon as you can, okay?_

 _..._

 _And yes, it **is** like I care about what happens to her! I'm not giving you the line! Now hurry up and do something about this, because I can't until she gets over Neptune and I being together or whatever else it is that's got her like this!"_

As the message cut off and another message began to play — some sort of telemarketing one, from the sound of it — the two occupants of the office fell into silence. With her breath held, the green haired woman reached over to shut off the machine that was now yammering on about subscribing to Nepflix as soon as possible. Chika knew things might be dire if she didn't handle this very carefully, but depending on what this Vert did next, they could also be greater than she could have possibly hop-

"Chika... I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I believe I should go and see Nepgear as soon as I can."

Things were dire!

"N-No, you- But what about the- The games! Yes yes, oh, we can't forget the _games_ , c-can we?!" Nodding emphatically, Chika gestured to the games her beloved sister had left behind for her visitor to play this afternoon. "Or... Or... Oh, I feel a headache coming on... O-O-Ohhh... The pain...! And I think I'm going to throw up... No, actually, I've got a rash... Ah, say, would you like a massage? I'm quite good at giving massages...! I-It might just help distract me from how horrible I feel right now too..."

For good measure, Chika added some coughs just in case.

During this performance, this grand descent into illness and despair, Vert could only manage to stare at the green haired woman, who seemed to be sporadically getting sicker and sicker the quieter and quieter Vert became. Perhaps her new sister had been a little more on point in her description of the Oracle than she had given credit.

Oh well... She supposed that didn't matter all too much.

"Listen to me... Come now, would you please cut that out? I'm going to go, but while I'm there, I'll get her to believe that _I_ am _our sister_. We'll explain everything to her when she returns, and by the time she does, Nepgear will be happy to have the Vert she's been longing for at her side, and our sister will be able to step in and pick up from where I left off once she returns!" Vert clapped her hands together and sighed dreamily. It didn't hurt that she'd get to spend some time with that wonderful girl from Planeptune either, but she didn't need to point out such an obvious thing to such a smart cookie like Chika. "It's the very least I can do for her for her assistance with my personal problems today."

As Vert explained her plan like she was weaving poetry, Chika opened and closed her mouth like a fish out of water. And when Vert was done?

"Oh." Just like that, all of Chika's life threatening symptoms vanished. It was a medical miracle. Vert really was the cure for all that ails ya — or at least all that ails Chika. She stood up straight, the bags under her eyes were gone, and the marks that had been starting to appear on her skin had disappeared like they had never been there in the first place. "You should have said that to begin with... If this was what you were feeling, we could have started much sooner... Oh, were you teasing me? Were you teasing me? You know, you're quite the minx, sister..."

To that, Vert simply smiled.

"You haven't seen anything yet."


End file.
